The Cycle of Ages: A Chosen One
by Cap'n Chryssalid
Summary: The Cycle of Ages has been reloaded! Time travelers, mysterious scepters, Babylon Rogues? Miles "Tails" Prower had a future set in iron, stone, and blood. Can he survive the changes to his own present, much less the war to end the Eggman Empire? Complete!
1. Table of Contents and Cast of Characters

**Table of Contents**

**Chapter 1: Reload**

Lara-Su finds herself thrown back into the past (again), this time inexplicably and without warning. The time is the end of the Eggman War, and the implications are dire. Tails, meanwhile, receives an unexpected visitor who interrupts his daily routine. What does all this portend?

**Chapter 2: Best Trip Ever**

Tails trains while Lara enjoys herself; Tempest and Sally clash over the former's foreign ways. Elsewhere, forces continue to advance their ambitions and dreams of conquest. While others bicker or get in touch with their past, the war quietly begins to draw to a climax.

**Chapter 3: Rogues**

Two unexpected interruptions disturb Tails' training. The Babylon Rogues and their allies raid Knothole and Tails vows to chase them down even if it means a running battle through the heart of the city. Tempest and Sally go on a long distance patrol to try and overcome their differences in the latter's hope of forming a diplomatic alliance while Sonic takes his friends out for a night on the town to relax.

**Chapter 4: Nothing Else**

Tails arranges a fight between Tempest and Nail, his two would-be spiritual mentors, while Silver and Blaze continue their work in the past under the watchful eyes of their master, Mephiles. A mishap in Tails training, however, soon calls into doubt the wisdom of the boy's mentors.

**Chapter 5: Some Touch of Madness**

Tails advances his own projects outside Knothole; Cream joins him on an excursion into The Ring (the ruins of Old Mobotropolis's sprawling suburbs) that quickly escalates into an all-out battle royal. Returning to Knothole, he confronts a certain spy about her alleged activities on behalf of foreign powers.

**Chapter 6: War Machine**

Blaze and Silver advance their agenda while Tails' increasing paranoia serves to further root out the disloyal in his midst. The Babylon Rogues return with remnants of the Battlebird Armada, bringing the war to one of Tails' research facilities. The HMS Blue Typhoon sorties to counterattack while Tails and Sonic race to hunt down the Rogues.

**Chapter 7: Mastermind**

Blaze and Cream meet in Knothole and Vector arrives, looking for the missing Super Emeralds. An infamous criminal is broken free and spirited out of the city while Sonic, Sally and Tails relax aboard the Blue Typhoon. Lara-Su investigates the site of a forsaken ritual and learns the truth behind Iblis and Mephiles.

**Chapter 8: Strange Bedfellows**

Tails leaves to investigate Battlebird rumors regarding his adopted parents, thought long dead, only to encounter some unexpected help in Chemical Plant City. As part of a joint mission to corner a mutual enemy, Sonic joins Shadow and Metal Sonic in tracking down Ixis Naugus. They end up in a Lost Zone, facing an ancient Guardian in the form of The Ifrit.

**Chapter 9: Crossing the Rubicon**

Tails and Rouge set their plans in stone and make their move, seemingly turning traitor against the Kingdom of Acorn. Tails faces Metal Sonic with the fate of GUN and the salvaged Egg Carrier at stake, while Rouge reacquaints herself with an old ally: Shadow, the Eggman Empire's right hand man and enforcer. The Peace Conference in Angel Island shatters as the two raid Knothole itself for the Sixth Chaos Emerald. Bunnie makes a life changing decision in a desperate bid to stop the so called ultimate life form.

**Chapter 10: Countdown to Extinction**

Helios rises and the enemies of the Eggman Empire tremble. Tails calls in unexpected allies as he leads a combined assault against the Flying City itself. Sonic, Sally and Knuckles confront the kitsune before Shadow and Rouge make an attack of their own. Their target: the Seventh and final Chaos Emerald, the acquisition of which will make Helios and the Eggman all but invincible.

**Chapter 11: A Flawed and Imperfect World**

Mephiles makes his move and begins to release Iblis on the world. While the war continues to rage around the Flying City, Sonic and Tails storm Helios in a desperate bid to save Knothole and countless lives. Lara-Su finally steps in to assure the timeline progresses as needed, and Shadow and Tails face each other for the last time. With the fate of the world at stake, what is Tails willing to sacrifice to claim victory? And what will be the aftermath of this final battle?

* * *

**Cast of Major Characters **(in order of appearance)

_Faction:_ **The ****Kingdom**** of ****Acorn**

Tails  
Rotor  
Sonic  
Sally Acorn  
Amy Rose  
Nicole (aka NICOLE)  
Bunnie Rabbot  
Antoine D'Coolette  
Cream  
Mina Mongoose  
Nicole-Typhoon  
Geoffrey St. John  
King Maximilian Acorn  
Elias Acorn  
Hershey (COA "New World Order" only)

_Faction:_ **Eggman Empire**

Robotnik/Eggman  
Shadow  
Snively (Colin Jr)  
Metal Sonic (Mk3v2)  
Tails Dolls  
SWATbots  
Combots  
E-Series

_Faction:_ **Independents Entry**

Lara-Su  
Blaze  
Silver  
Tempest (OC)  
Nail (OC)  
Rush (OC)  
Fiona  
Nack  
Nic  
The Babylon Rogues (Jet, Storm, Wave)  
Rouge  
Athair  
Merlin  
Ixis Naugus  
Mammoth Mogul  
Helmut von Stryker  
Fiona 2.0  
Chara (OC) (COA "New World Order" only)

_Faction:_ **Angel**** Island**

Knuckles  
Julie-Su  
Vector  
Charmy (COA "New World Order" only)  
Espio (COA "New World Order" only)  
Mighty (COA "New World Order" only)

_Faction:_ **GUN Remnant**

Mastermind (OC)  
Mya Florentine(OC)  
Aya Florentine (OC)  
David Weaver (OC) (COA "New World Order" only)

Topaz -- (N/A)  
Hope Kintobor -- (N/A)

* * *

_Incoming Files..._

Cast of Characters **QuickFiles and other Data Entries** are now available. These are designed to help readers of the story better understand how the continuity of COA pans out - a mixture of the games, the comics, and the Sonic X cartoon. There are three entries, one for each major faction, and one for those characters who act out of their own self interest. Each entry has a list of characters, a short biography on each, and some basic personal stats. The files can be accessed by the link in my **author's page here in FFN**.

* * *

--

_WARNING_

_Incoming Transmission_

_From: unknown source – pc56x21_

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_The time stream you have requested has now stabilized._

_Phase Distortion Ratio 3.562:1_

_Rerouting..._

_Please Wait_

_Ping Returned : : : Initiating "Cycle of Ages: A Chosen One" 2008 Reload_

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_Safety is not guaranteed._

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	2. Reload i

* * *

**"Each of us bears his own Hell."**

**- Virgil, Aeneid**

* * *

**Something was wrong.**

…

The planet hung, suspended like a jewel in a sea of ink. A single moon, pockmarked by scars, craters, and a tremendous gash, watched over the pristine orb. Closer to the atmosphere, debris clung like static charge to the tidal forces in its upper orbit. Most prominent among the wreckage, the decaying remnants of a massive space station and orbital platform continued to degrade, inching closer every year to uncontrolled reentry. Most likely, it would crash into the main continent: a vast swath of green and brown, encircled by mountains and plains. Further east, and into the darkness opposite the star system's life giving sun, another continent straddled the globe. Seen from space, no lights, no sign of life, exist to challenge the night.

This was Mobius.

And something had just gone wrong.

Between the two primary continents, floating above the smallest of the planet's major oceans, a unique geographic anomaly could be found. It was called Angel Island. Roughly tear shaped, the northern half was a verdant crescent, with jungles of giant mushrooms and rich grasslands fed by clear lakes and rivers. Here, finally, were some centers of light, of civilization… a civilization building over the regions that had been despoiled, laying infrastructure, building cities. Cities like Hydro City, Echidnapolis, and Marble Garden. To the west lay arid lands, and to the south: only burning desert.

Sandopolis.

The date is counted as three thousand, two hundred and thirty seven years after the fall of the First City and the beginning of the post-Mogulian period. Nine hundred and forty years since the first release of Perfect Chaos created the buried ruins of Sandopolis. In all those intervening centuries, only recently within the last half decade have fools and madmen once again dared to plumb the depths of that barren and haunted place. Within Sandopolis, the wrecks of strange scorpion shaped robots lie silent and inactive by rivers of endlessly shifting sand.

Things change in darkness, beside a half buried Ziggurat…

The air split, folding out and then in, the surface becoming the exterior, and the interior inverting. A cube of fresh air suddenly dispersed into the deadly stillness of the ruins, and within it, a single small form.

A single small form that _shouldn't_ have been there in the first place.

"Hey, it didn't work!"

…

The figure winced, as if struck. "W… what… what's…?"

Clutching her chest, Lara-Su stumbled forward, trying to keep from falling. Blue black shoes sunk partly into the sand, and for a moment she flailed in the darkness. A handful of seconds passed, as she collected herself, then a glow of light finally filled the ruins as one of her hands lit up with a cool white halo. Violet hair ran down her face, forcing her to tuck some of the strands out of the way, and back in line with her echidna's dreadlocks.

"Miles?"

Embedded in her chest, a ruby red emerald shone, but offered only partial comfort.

"Miles. You… you aren't here…?" she asked, and alone in the middle of Sandopolis, got no answer.

"This is Sandopolis…" she looked around, blue-violet eyes searching and coming to a rest on the nearby ziggurat. "The Tiered Mausoleum. This **is **Sandpolis, Courtyard Seven, Third Circle, Fifth Column. But where is everybody?"

Pulling her shoes out of the sand, she hopped gracefully over to a solid stone pillar that had once been part of one of the city's many aqueducts. The water was long gone, and instead a trickle of sand ran down the ancient causeway. Lara-Su took another look around, and briefly entertained the notion that she was the victim of some sort of elaborate trick.

"Ok, Fiona, _very_ funny! You almost had me there!"

Nothing.

"Fiona?" she tried again, and frowned. "Fiona? Fiona!! Miles!!"

Nothing.

Touching the chaos emerald in her chest, she concentrated hard on trying to locate him. Never before had she been unable to feel his presence through the Emerald, if not (what she was sure was) their Soultouch. Even on the other side of the planet, or in deep space, his presence had flowed into and cloaked her in its comforting glow. Like a blanket of light, he had always been there.

Now, the blanket was thin, and the glow faint.

She could still feel it – his power, flowing into her – but there was none of the warmth and love and belonging. It didn't feel like it usually did, like she was carrying a piece of his soul. Now it just felt more like a superpower battery. A sudden wave of loneliness washed over her, leaving her to drown in the bitter possibility of abandonment…

"No. I'm not alone!" She patted the emerald in her chest, nestled between her breasts. "Something just went wrong with my last Chaos Control…"

She closed her eyes and tried to remember the lecture he'd given about Parallel Universes. She remembered that he'd been building something, and Fiona had been there helping him, and she'd been staring at a comically large chalkboard covered with arcane scribbles and mathematics she couldn't begin to imagine. Tikal had been there, too, having decided to manifest herself but otherwise not contribute. Instead, the spirit of the echidna girl seemed to be doodling on a corner of the blackboard.

Bored and wanting to be involved, she had asked him something about their alternate selves, and whether they had the same gifts. Miles had pondered it for a few moments, and started talking. Unfortunately, he started by going on and on about particle and dimensional physics.

"Bla bla bla Chaos Control bla bla bla cyclic inversion bla bla bla subspace…"

"No," Lara cupped her chin as she tried to remember. "It was after that…"

"Super Emeralds…" she remembered him saying. "Something about the Super Emeralds…?"

A drizzle of sand fell from the ceiling and landed on her nose.

"Argh!!" She wailed, brushing the sand off and yelling into the empty catacombs. "I can't remember!!"

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER ONE:_

**Reload (Death's Rebirth and Beginning's End)**

* * *

Fire.

All I can see is fire.

It laps up from all around me, like the forked tongues of some great serpent. Everything is gone. Everything is dead. And, though I know not why, my mind tells me that I have brought about this terror. Accusations, in the form of screams and curses, assail my ears. All of Mobius… my beloved Mobius… lies in ruin. My world is now my tomb.

A flash.

And I see them. Marching amid the flames, those shadowy figures move with sudden purpose and murderous intent. I find… I find I can move them… with as little effort as one would use to move ones hand. In that moment, the urge to see what this fantasy is capable of, the need to indulge myself and drink my fill of its power… It is unbearable. Undeniable.

A flash.

Mumbled words, long lost to time. I see someone fall, and then dark vines constrict my thoughts and crush my dreams. High above, the dappled outline of trees soars upwards, disorienting me… What is this place? What are these screams that sound so much like my own? Why have I been cast into this nightmare?!

A flash.

The sky! There is something in the sky! So small, but so bright! So great!

I hear a wail of anguish… and… and…

And I awake.

I look up and see the ceiling stretch out like a black sea. A long shaft of light streams in from the nearby window, and it calms me. Groaning, I lean forward and hold my head in my hands. The memory of the dream fades into oblivion, leaving only a hollow fear and a feeling of exhaustion in its wake. My eyes squint up, but I don't cry. Not anymore.

I'm… too used to it to cry.

Nightmares.

"Why am I having them again?" I ask the darkness of the room and get no answer. "Why after so many years?"

Slowly sliding out of the bed, I pat the hard surface. It keeps the back straight and just felt… right for some reason. Looking down, I see that, sometime last night, I'd thrown my meager blanket on the floor. Picking up the crumpled cloth, I snap it out and fold, once, twice, three times… into a nice little rectangle. The shaft of light again has my attention.

It's almost morning.

Rolling my head back and forth, working the kinks out of my neck, I narrow my eyes a fraction and the darkness becomes clearer… outlines and shapes become more distinct. In the end, I'm almost surprised by the little bit of quasi-night vision I seemed to have developed. I'd always seen better than my friends on the dark, but it had never been this good. Finally facing my mirror, I see my hair and sigh exasperatedly.

"What a mess." Running my hand through the locks of hair, I untangle them into three long bangs with a few sharp pulls. Then, shaking my head a little, I notice the normally soft white fur on the side of my face, starting at my cheek and trailing down the end of my jaw. Feeling it, I confirm the fact that its getting thicker and longer. So was the normally short fur on my neck.

If things kept up, I'll need a tougher comb.

Still, it wasn't anything too unusual. The brief thought that my hair might get as thick as my tails gives me the amusing the image of one massive fur ball, like something out of a bad science fiction magazine. Laughing quietly to myself, I turn on the small light near the mirror and above the sink. Reaching for my toothbrush, I ground my teeth together and feel my jaw with my free hand. Oddly, my cheeks hurt a little, now that I think about it. Knowing my recent luck, I'd probably bit the inside of his mouth in my sleep again.

Washing the toothbrush out with a trickle of running water from the old faucet, I apply a dab of the makeshift toothpaste everyone in the village uses. It's pretty potent, nasty stuff. Almost as bad as the old school soap they were usually stuck with, made from animal fat, oil and wood ashes. Still, it was better than nothing. I quickly amended that: it was infinitely better than nothing. Opening my mouth wide, I pause.

Is it my imagination or…

Are my canines getting bigger?

"What… the…" Running my finger along the inside of my mouth, and then to the gums of my upper jaw, I press lightly against the tooth. It felt sharp. My hands fall to the sink, and I look closely at the kitsune in the mirror. The tawny fur, a sort of orange and brown, is mine. The ears and even the hair… are still familiar. But the nose, the muzzle, the tint of the eyes, growing less and less dark blue and more black… I look at the fox in the mirror, only thirteen years old, and wonder.

Who are you?

What… on Mobius… are you?

* * *

Within the Little Planet:

"Long forgotten by the Hands of Fate…"

Far beneath the surface:

"Long forgotten by those who Watch…"

Past pillar and stone:

"Long forgotten by even his Sire…"

Beyond bulwark and ancient emplacement:

"Long have I slept, long have I waited."

Upon marbled ground and etched rune:

A shadowed smile. "How time… flies…"

* * *

"Let me be clear as to the question. Are you asking whether or not the survival of the mobian people, as a race, was in jeopardy in the early thirty third century?"

"That is exactly the question, Professor."

"Then it is not an easy one to answer. The end of the Third Mobian Overlander War, or the so-called First Great War in 3229, was the first taste of true industrial style warfare in Mobian history. Both sides fought viciously, and with tenacity, because both called the war a War of Survival. Mobians believed that losing the war would reduce them to slavery or worse… extinction. At the same time, surviving Overlander records indicate a concurrent vein of thought. Modern scholars still debate how much truth can be gleaned from these documents, and how to separate fact from fantasy. …Take, for example, the Black Hands Organization, supposedly founded by the Fifth Imperial Warmaster."

"Kodos?"

"The same. An organization supposedly devoted to the annihilation of the Overlanders as a species distinct and separate from Mobians. While a great deal of evidence has been found supporting massacres of civilian populations on both sides, and atrocities we can look back on with great shame, we have never found any actual proof of the existence of the so called 'Black Hands' yet the myth continues to persist. It is my opinion that, despite the horrors of the First Great War, the overreaching threat to mobian life as a whole was actually limited. Many parts of the planet never lost a single life to the War, and some never even knew of its existence."

"That could be said for any conflict, no matter how major."

"True. Now, continuing to the tumultuous thirty-two thirties… the situation truly deteriorates. We have the successful coup in thirty-two thirty, which places the former Sixth Imperial War Master in Command, and precipitates the fall of the First Acorn Dynasty."

"Tell us your thoughts on this coup, and its leader."

"Kintobor. The Kintobors were some sort of ruling family among the overlanders, and Julian Kintobor was its black sheep. Despite scarce records, we know there was a feud within the family, and that it resulted in the exile of Julian – the older brother – and numerous other overlanders. He found asylum in the besieged Kingdom of Acorn, and worked his way to Imperial War Master in thirty two twenty eight, after only four years of service. A remarkable achievement. I've studied the strategies he used at West Island, the Southern Defensive, and Pandtern. Virtually all modern day scholars concede that the war could not have been won without him. However, his power hungry nature was obvious to all those who spent time with him, and it is a testament to the hubris of the Acorn Dynasty that they believed they could control him."

"Why do you think he was able to so easily seize power?"

"There had been an existing power vacuum for years, entirely due to the failing policies of King Maximillian the First. The agricultural overhaul in thirty two twenty five, the purging of the nobility in thirty-two eighteen, twenty one, and finally in twenty-eight had soured the vision of the Monarchy in the eyes of many of the mobian elite. The death of many supporters of the King earlier in the war had also dramatically weakened his power base inside the military itself. The situation was rife for revolution, and many people were apathetic. If Kintobor had not seized power, some other individual would have. It was inevitable. In that light it is hardly surprising that this overlander, despite his ethnicity, was able to make good use of his military power, and relative popularity, to make a move."

"Which brings us to the Second Great War."

"Yes. Often overlooked, the Second Great War was really a continuation of the first. It was during this period that the policies of the new despot, Julian Kintobor, built the foundation for the conflict to come. Lasting almost three years, and ending in thirty two thirty three, the time it took for the second overlander assault to be pushed back gave surviving pockets of Anti-Kintobor mobian resistance to organize themselves. By the time of the overlander defeat and withdrawal, the stage had been set for the Mobian War of Succession. To go back to your original question, this was the period in time when mobians, as a people, faced their greatest crisis."

"The so called 'Freedom Fighter' Era."

"Yes."

"How so, Professor?"

"During this period of just five years, the planet itself would be put into jeopardy half a dozen times. The two 'Death Egg' incidents, The Doomsday scenario, The Chaos phenomenon, and numerous other catastrophes all occurred in this relatively small frame of time, as a handful of parties vied for dominance and hegemony. For every positive advance, like the return of Echidnapolis in thirty two thirty five, there seemed to occur a number of negatives, like the return and sudden annihilation of the overlanders in thirty two thirty six. For every supposed step towards liberation, like the short-lived 'death' of Kintobor also in thirty-five, there was another attempted take-over. Self styled world conquerors like Enerjak, and Mammoth Mogul appeared and went, only to be replaced by newcomers, like the so-called 'Master Mind.'"

"Of course all this came to a head in thirty two thirty seven."

"Yes. And it was a good thing that it did. Because, while not all of my colleagues would agree with me, I am certain that then and there, in thirty two thirty seven, the very existence of our species was spoken of with a question mark… The Freedom Fighters of that Era, led by the exiled remnants of the Royal Acorn Family were holding tenuously to survival in the Great Forest of Mobius as they had for years. Guerrilla warfare had been steadily escalating since the partial leveling of Mobotropolis and the emergence of the second overlander known as Master Mind, and despite the potential for help from far off Echidnapolis, none was forthcoming. The Angel Island had plunged back into isolationism. Indeed, as any historian of the period will admit, the situation was a bleak one. As bleak as any that had come before, because the hope that had to characterized previous years was slowly but surely waning."

"And…. That seems to be all the time we have for today. Professor Punitif – Chairman of Collective Mobian History, Royal University New Mobotropolis. Thank you for your insights. I hope you can join us again sometime in the future."

"Thank you, Mr. Jihn. I'd be happy to."

"Those watching at home, please join us tomorrow, when we will be having a round table discussion with noted academic Mikhail Nosennov, of the Seminole Institute, and Laura Li of the Remington Memorial Think Tank, on Echidnapolis. The subject: 'What was the extent of Dark Legion participation in the Ducal Insurrection?'"

* * *

Knothole.

3237

Closing the door to his hut, Miles 'Tails' Prower squinted his eyes against the early morning sun. Last nights dreams had been thankfully uneventful, and for the first time in a week he had enjoyed an actual good night's sleep. Looking around, he wondered who else was up aside from himself. It wasn't that late in the day, and Rotor was always the first up. Sonic and Sally were probably still asleep. The latter could usually afford to sleep until eleven, and the former preferred to wake up around lunchtime. They were lucky.

Most mobians couldn't make their own schedules.

There was a time, just a few years ago, when he would have joined them. Of course, his only excuse for sleeping in would be that he was a growing boy, and still 'in training.' Now, despite still being only twelve (or so), the burdens of responsibility weighed more heavily on him than he would ever have imagined. On the side of his hut, he checked his mailbox; opening it with a key he kept in his dresser.

It was thin pickings, as usual.

The rudimentary postal system was one of the newer institutions to Knothole, which had undergone radical changes over the last two and a half years. Once little more than a tiny retreat in the Forest, it had grown steadily with Freedom Fighters… and then Freedom Fighter families, and then, finally, refugees and civilians from the second fall of Mobotropolis. The retreat had turned into a hamlet, and almost overnight, into a not-too-small town. The sudden increase in population from around two hundred to a little more than ten times that number had been hard to handle. As it was, Sally had taken to slowly but surely decentralizing their organization, moving more and more mobians to other secure and semi-secure villages across the former Kingdom.

Simply, Knothole was not meant to support so many animals.

Especially given its supposedly covert nature.

"Rotor…" Tails grumbled, as he picked out the most important of the five pieces of white-brown paper. It was a list of Duties and things that needed being done. The chief mechanic of Knothole had taken the liberty of dividing up the list, checking off what he planned to do, and what he expected his former apprentice to take care of. No the fox's total lack of surprise, he was on 'water treatment and reclamation' duty again. Plus, he had to fix the lighting in the East Quarter, which was on the fritz again, and a few other lesser problems.

Folding the paper, he read the other four notes.

"What's this? Invited to attend… etc… Miles' Tails' Prower."

It was an invitation to a small concert being held at the Clearing in Old Knothole, by some group of FF trainees. Tails had gotten the invite because he was one of the Founding Fathers of the Resistance, and as a formality. You invite one of the original Freedom Fighters, you have to invite them all, no matter that the 'Founding Father' is a couple years your minor.

The next bit of mail was the Thursday edition of 'The Patriot,' a mini newspaper one of the refugee mobians, a former journalist in the days of the Kingdom, had started up. Tails checked the headlines, and sighed. Nothing about him. Hardly surprising, really… but it always irked him. There was an article about the Crown Prince, another about the last raid on Robotropolis, and a bunch of editorials and other junk. Most of it was propaganda and populist nonsense. He never would've paid for a subscription, and only got the newspaper at all because he helped build its printing equipment and train its staff to maintain it. Hence, it got it for free.

"Lucky me." He droned, and read over the other two notes. One was from Sonic, and read, curtly: "Party at my place, Thurs. 10 PM. There'll be girls, so you'd better show, Big Guy."

The fox grinned and shook his head. "Sonic…"

Still, a part of him wasn't so eager to show up. He'd never had much experience or luck with the opposite sex. Plus, if Sonic was there, he would almost certainly be the center of attention, not the junior Fox Scout he sometimes hangs out with. Worse, someone might call him 'Milsey' or 'Tails-chan' or some other horrendous nickname. Last time, some girl had called him 'That Prowler Kid.' He frowned a little at the memory.

The last note was junk.

It was just an advertisement for some new arts and crafts shop on the South Side of the town. Not really worth the five or six times recycled paper it was printed on. Going back inside his hut briefly, Tails put everything but the newspaper on the drawing desk next to his bed and headed off to get a quick bit to eat. He'd recently been finding breakfasts less and less appetizing, but his hunger kept him going back to the same old thing.

"Eggs!" He demanded at the counter. "Bacon!"

The small staff were happy to comply, and Tails ate in relative peace and quiet by himself in the open air Clearing. When he was younger, just a few years ago, he had played here. He had thrown around a ball in the bright sunshine and laughed and wondered: When will I get to be a real Freedom Fighter? When will I be able to help?

On a lark, he looked around at the other mobians sitting and eating. He recognized them, knew them, at least vaguely. They were other Freedom Fighters, from other cells in other areas of the continent. They were the next batch of Freedom Fighters, ones who had lost their homes for a second time. What they weren't… were his friends. Associates and comrades in arms was about as far as it went.

Where was Bunnie?

Training cadets and trainees. The same fate Antoine had been stuck with. Rotor never ate breakfast, but Tails saw him almost every day anyway, at least. Amy Rose came and went, doing pretty much nothing of any productive use. Sonic alternated between busy on missions, and waiting between missions, bored out of his mind. Sally had a little empire to run, though at least she had more help now and wasn't nearly as hassled as she had been in past years. Knuckles and his friends were still on the newly renamed Angel Island (formerly known just as the Floating Island), and had their hands full with the Dark Legion and other off-Mobius threats.

The eggs and bacon tasted slick and fatty.

He almost gagged after the first bite, but his stomach quickly reminded him that food was just more needed fuel for the fire, and he forced it down. It was a good thing, too. He just couldn't eat cereal anymore. The last time he tried, a few weeks ago, he had thrown it up just a few minutes after forcing it down. Chewing the remains of the last overly fried egg, Tails sighed and went to work.

It didn't take long for his life to return to its routine.

"So: what've we got here?"

One of his assistants, a badger named Scott, wiped his brow with the back of his hand. Next to the animal, Knotholes' main system of water conduits and pipes crisscrossed, meeting in a junction of metal and wipes and power. Tails knew this was as much the heart of the town as the Inner Square, or the Academy or even Rotor's vaunted Power Hub. Without running water, hot and cold, and without proper treatment and recycling, the population would be in a state of panic and crisis in less than a day. Even a minor loss of efficiency or a significant leak or contamination could force a partial evacuation. If handled incorrectly, any number of problems could lead to yet more obvious clues as to Knothole's supposedly 'secret' and 'hidden' location deep in the Great Forest.

The water had to be brought in from around the town, filtered and treated, then partially recycled. Some of it returned to nature, back to the underground aquifer and the normal running above ground sources, and some of it back into the system. A related system brought in new water from those same sources, and yet another system watched both systems and monitored them for purity and needed maintenance. Tails knew all three like the back of his hand (minus the glove). He had, after all, designed it himself.

"Looks like an error in the oxidization process." Scott led his 'boss' over to the main control station for the three systems that handled the lifeblood of Knothole. "'George' isolated it in Treatment Pool Four. So Jerry and Elaine compensated, locking up the pumps to it and falling back on the redundant secondaries. It's undergoing a backwash as we speak."

"Great…" The vulpine sighed, and looked over the readings. "We're going to have to replace Filters twelve through fourteen. Probably the white sand in filter fifteen, too."

The systems were highly automated and designed to maintain peak efficiency at all times. This kept it 'stealthy,' as the environmental impact was minimal, but it also made it more complex and difficult to keep going all the time. The three systems, nicknamed Elaine (Filtration and Treatment), Jerry (Externalization and Output) and George (Coordination and Oversight) acted logically, like they were programmed to, but with no mercy for those who had to physically maintain things. The whole thing was based loosely on the vast Hydrocity Plant that, in its time, desalinated and provided water for a large swatch of the main continent.

"So this isn't a major problem, then?"

"No. … But there's something really wrong with this." Tails pointed to a flow chart on the monitor. "This happens far too often when it comes to Pool Four. I think there's something wrong with the plumbing system in the East Quarter."

"Sir?"

Tails looked at Scott closely. He could tell, just by his tone of voice, that the badger still wasn't totally comfortable being under the command of a 'little twelve year old kid.' Under his gaze, Scott gulped, feeling obviously uncomfortable.

"Don't be angry, sir," he finally said, trying to appease the fox. The he started to ramble. "I mean, I know this means we'll have to… er… you'll have to look over the whole plumbing routes and er… um… I ah…"

"I'm not angry." Tails stated, and stood to his full height. He noted with no small amusement he was just a fraction of an inch taller than the other mobian. "Do I look angry?"

"Um… yes… sir."

That was odd.

Straightening out his face, he checked. It felt relaxed. After a second or two of making sure he wasn't frowning, or looking 'angry,' he turned back to the monitor. "Whatever. Just get to work replacing those filters. Use your judgment on whether fifteen needs replacement, too. If it does, get… Mindy to do it. She needs some more experience with changing the filters."

"Sir."

"I'll get to work on double checking the network." Starting to head off, the kitsune paused, and looked over his shoulder. "Scott?"

The badger turned around completely. "Sir?"

"You don't like me, do you?"

The other mobian stood ramrod straight.

"I… Sir, I don't…"

"No." Tails blinked. This assistant of his was so transparent. His emotions and thoughts were like glass. The only real question was why the two tailed fox hadn't noticed it earlier. "No: you don't like me. You don't like that you have to take orders from me. You don't like… that you work for me… and not Rotor. And… when you talk to your friends, you tell them I'm…"

"Sir!" The badger bit his lower lip, and looked at Tails pleadingly. "I don't know who told you all that, but… but I didn't mean any of it! I was drunk! I… I was kidding! You know how it is! You say stuff you don't mean!"

"I suppose you do." Tails faced away from the badger, and started walking away.

From behind, Tails heard Scott add, in pleading tones: "I'm… I'm not fired am I?"

"Not unless that filter isn't changed by noon." Tails waved the incident off. "I don't care what you think of me. Just do your part for the cause, understood?"

"Yes." Scott spoke up. "Yes sir."

Tails heard something else mumbled under the badger's breath, softly cursing one of his drinking buddies. While outwardly calm, the fox wondered how he had guessed all that. It couldn't have just been simple observation, could it? Walking out the door, leaving the 'Reclamation and Treatment' Center behind him, he slowly took off the glove on his left hand. He had always worn gloves, just like his hero, Sonic… but lately. Lately, he had been reluctant to take them off in public. But the streets here were relatively empty and free of prying eyes.

Working the white glove off, Tails looked at the palm of his hand.

Flexing his fingers, he saw his claws – normally little stubs, like those most mobians had – retract slightly, almost like a cat's. They certainly weren't stubs anymore. Sometime over the last month, he was sure, they had gotten a little longer, and a lot sharper. They reminded him of Hershey's claws, which he had seen only once, about a week ago. He had asked her if she had them around the same time his started to come out, and she had demonstrated. But Hershey was a feline, and hers retracted all the way into her fingers. Tails' new claws just seemed to fold down a little, closer to his fingertips, where they generally didn't catch anything by accident.

"Miles? Sir?"

At the sound of a voice, he quickly put his glove back on, and faced the source of the interruption. It was a young looking squirrel, with bright blue eyes and a patch of dark black hair. He found her cute, in a familiar way, but… something else was missing about her. For some reason, he found himself sniffing the air faintly.

"Um. Yes." He snapped out of it quickly. "You… are…?"

"Jamie."

"Jamie?"

"Yes sir." He didn't detect the same hidden note of concealed resentment in her and relaxed a fraction. But the question remained: what did she want with him? Almost certainly it was a favor of some sort. No one came to him unless they needed something fixed, or some help with something.

"Well?" He prompted. "How can I help you?"

"Um…" She blushed, and looked down at her feet. "I… I was wondering…"

"Go on." He stressed. He was a busy mobian and this was eating up precious time.

"I was wondering if you would, if you didn't have anyone in mind I mean, take me, um… to Sonic's party today?"

At first, the question confused him. "You want to go…with me?"

"Yes, sir." She said shyly. "It's invite only."

His facial expression hardened. "And you know he invited me, huh? I'm your ticket in, is that it?"

"No!" She gasped. But he saw through it. There was the lie. In her eyes. In her voice. In her heartbeat and in her smell. He was 100 certain of it.

"Don't take me for a fool." He warned, but kept himself from growling. There was no sense in getting angry. She looked away from him, dejected and embarrassed. He sighed.

"I appreciate honesty, that's all," he explained, in a softer tone, hoping he didn't sound as bitter as he felt. "If you want to go, I'll take you. It isn't like I have any other plans."

"You will?" She beamed at him, and threw her arms around him. He stiffened instantly, rejecting the touch. How could this girl demean this physical gesture of affection with her falsehood? It… annoyed him. "Thank you! Thank you!"

"Whatever."

He pushed her away from him, careful not to use too much force. He'd always been pretty strong for his size, but recently… he'd learned that he really had to watch himself. He listened while she explained where she lived, in one of the older Academy dorms, expecting him to escort her to the party ('Great,' he thought, 'A wet behind the ears newb - at least I'll be doing her popularity a favor.'). He filed the information away for later.

He didn't care.

Not anymore.

He'd long ceased after… after… He scowled deeply, finally, thinking about her. That had been a mistake. It had been a mistake back then, and it was a mistake now thinking about it. He didn't care. Not anymore. It was a relief to him when he got around to looking over the drainage network and the sewage system. The problem was a complex one – two new stores in the Eastern Quarter had been abusing their water allocations, and dumping refuse and trash down the drain. Wood chips and silicates and other crap had fouled up the system.

It'd have to be cleaned out.

He'd already, with a touch too much glee, written in his report every violation of the water could he had justification for. If those bastards were found to be guilty of even half of what he wrote down, and they'd be fined up the ass. His blood boiled when he thought of how one of them had tried to bribe him, of all mobians! As if he needed anything that they had. As if he could be bought and sold like some common gutter trash…

Tails shook his head.

He was getting too angry too quickly, recently. He smiled weakly as he walked from the East Side of the town to the Inner Square. This was for the good of everyone. The rules were written and enforced because they lived a tenuous existence. A measure of freedom had to be sacrificed, to maintain secrecy. If Robotnick or Mastermind found out where Knothole was… The center of the resistance would be crushed. Everything he worked for and cared about would be lost… buried under a tide of Swatbots and badnicks and mutant freaks…

Mutant freaks.

The phrase made him laugh. He was the last mobian on the planet to go around calling anyone a 'mutant freak!' The rest of the day went by well enough. He met up with Rotor in his 'Power Hub.' The walrus, several years Tails' senior, had done well for himself. Rotor was Knothole's Senior Technician (Tails had the Junior spot), and when Knothole had expanded, quickly took advantage of the fact to expand his little workshop. They needed a greatly improved power supply and infrastructure, and Rotor had set it all up almost by himself, while everyone else had been out fighting the good fight in a more traditional fashion.

The work he had done was impressive.

When they had first met, Rotor had noticed the young fox's aptitude when it came to mechanics, and had tutored him in the basics, and eventually, the nuances. They had worked on a few joint projects, here and there, but had ultimately specialized in different fields. Rotor's passion was programming, electronics, and finding a better, more reliable and more effective deroboticizer. Tails, on the other hand, had preferred to take a more proactive approach. He dabbled in a great many things, by necessity, but his personal passion was for weapons. He built the shield and the cloak that kept a newly expanded Knothole off infrared and radio sensors. He built its new anti-aircraft array. He built the weapons of war that would win their peace. How Rotor took things from there, he didn't altogether care.

Rotor had a number of assistants helping him, but he still took time to work with his first. He and Tails got together for lunch, and compared notes on Knothole's power grid. It was at its limits, and both of them had plans for expansion. Tails wanted to try adapting some more experimental power sources to compensate, and spent his time advocating the potential benefits of copying the Ring Generator ('Too risky,' Rotor countered, 'Moving the Ring Generator isn't safe'), salvaging a power core from one of the abandoned satellites in orbit ('Setting up a launch site is too expensive and will attract too much attention'), or even harnessing the power of a chaos emerald ('Way too dangerous for a public power system, plus where are you going to get one?').

Rotor, meanwhile, proposed, as he always did, finding a new geothermal source of energy ('Too far from Knothole,' Tails pointed out more than once, 'And too vulnerable to a counterstrike') or building more wind turbines ('Too little power, given projected power requirements'). Over tuna fish sandwiches, one of the foods both actually enjoyed, Rotor finally admitted it was a moot point anyway, because by next month they'd be forced to settle for using old fossil fuel generators to supplement their power needs. It was news to Tails, who hadn't been aware that the town council had already decided on taking the cheap route.

"Its bullshit!" Rotor said, angered by the decision enough that he was willing to use that kind of language. Tails was old enough that cursing was becoming more and more… not a big deal, but both he and Rotor generally refrained from it. Rotor especially. He was normally very composed and calm.

Tails had shrugged, and quickly finished off his second sandwich.

"It was better when we could take these things right to Sal. She used to understand. And she wasn't afraid to take a few risks…" He started to rant.

"Are we remembering the same Sally Acorn, here?" Tails asked his companion and … friend. "I suppose you were fortunate enough not to hear 'it's too dangerous, Tails' or 'we can't risk it' every other day for two years."

Rotor cracked a grin. "I suppose not. Still… she was better than this … council."

Tails raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh?"

"Don't tell me you don't feel the same way." Rotor remarked, knowing the answer. "It should just be us. The originals. Running everything. No councils, no committees, no financial oversight… like the old days. But better. Because we're all better, now. More experienced."

"And how do you think that'll go over with all the mobians living here, hmm?"

"They'll accept it." Rotor shrugged. "At least until we win the war."

"Why don't you just take it to Sally, then?" Tails asked, pushing his tray away from him. He looked up into the clear blue sky, and felt like taking a quick flight to clear his mind.

"Maybe I will. She's letting these… crowds… walk all over her." Rotor sighed loudly, his large body shaking with the motion. Getting to his feet, he shook his shoulders, getting the knots out of weary muscles.

Watching him get ready to leave, Tails spoke up. "Hey. You going to Sonic's tonight?"

"Nah." Rotor shook his head. "I'm not much of a party type, you know that. I'll probably just be burning the midnight oil."

Tails thought, momentarily, about foisting off his 'date' on Rotor. It wouldn't be too hard. All it would take is telling the poor guy that a 'cute girl' he knew needed someone to take her. Rotor wasn't looking for anything serious, Tails knew, but he also knew the older mobian really did want some sort of female attention. Just like the two tailed fox, Rotor was set apart from the others because of who and what he was.

Uncommon.

"Right," Tails said, deciding not to try it. While tempting, in the end, when all was said and done, it would only make Rotor miserable. Because he cared. Tails… didn't.

"Remember to take care of the wiring problem we talked about…"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll take care of it." Tails stood up, leaving their trays on the wooden table. Someone would come and pick it up for them. That was one of the benefits of Knothole, now. They had a too large labor surplus, and so many people had little jobs. The town didn't even have a real economy, so much as a sort of quasi command economy. But the financial situation wasn't Tails' concern. What mattered was that things got done.

"Good." Rotor was satisfied with that answer. If Tails said it would get done, he knew it would. "See ya around, man."

"You too."

Tails didn't see him leave. Instead, he stepped out to the edge of the clearing, and jumped into the air. It took only a second for his twin tails to twist, and then explode into a blur of motion. He fell forward, before his trust equalized and slowly lifted him higher into the air. He'd been doing this for years, but… but it had been easier when he was little. Despite his growing muscles, his size and his ability to increase the power of his tails were not increasing in equal proportions. It was only because he's practiced boosting Sonic into the air and holding Sonic over obstacles and dangers in previous years that he had the raw power to hold himself aloft now.

But the exertion was worth it.

Catching a bit of sky, feeling the wind in his face… it was perfect. It was a slice of true freedom, the likes of which Sonic experiences only when running at full speed. Of course, Tails had never been able to match Sonic's speed, no matter how hard he tried… but he had come close more than once. The blue hedgehog was unbeatable on flat even terrain, but on uneven ground he couldn't pick up enough acceleration to break the sound barrier. Around loops, in turns, and on broken ground Tails could almost always keep pace with his idol, though he usually tired more quickly. It was pretty damn impressive, given that Sonic was five years older than him.

But this was even better.

Only Knuckles really knew how this felt, gliding over the land. Feeling himself begin to tire after only two minutes, he turned around and headed back. He flew low over the tree line by habit, to keep off of radar screens and give himself quick cover if he needed it. Approaching Knothole, he felt an urge not to fly into the place and attract attention. He already looked different. There was no need to show it off.

Diving through the canopy, he landed on the thick branch of a tree.

"The Ring Pool."

He looked down at that small body of water. After Knothole's expansion, the Ring Pool had been declared off limits to most mobians by Royal Decree. Only the original Freedom Fighters were allowed there. Tails had always enjoyed its tranquil waters, and serene beauty, especially at dawn and dusk. It reminded him of West Island.

He sniffed the air.

And felt… oddly… Protective…

"Bah." Scoffing at such a silly thing, he flipped down and landed on both feet. "I've got work to take care of. First and foremost…"

The repairs were child's play.

* * *

The sun's glare was omnipresent and relentless in its intensity.

"Can someone boost the audio on the sandstorm outside? And for Aurora's sake, add a little bass to it or something! Is it too much to ask for some halfway decent atmospherics?"

Among the dunes, several parked vehicles rested under a heavy tarmac, protected from the wind and sand. A short distance away, a large van on hovertreads sat beneath the protection of a stone awning. Ruins dotted the desert, but among these select few, there was life.

Such as it was.

"I'm getting some interference in the video feed…"

"No! It's good! Keep it!"

The building had once been part of a parade ground, back in the days of Old Dingo City. Now, the ghosts of soldiers, long dead, haunted the ruins. Or so they claimed on "Mobius' Most Haunted Castles and Ruins." In fact, the spirits of Sandopolis almost never ventured beyond the lower circles of the fallen city. Luckily, a little cinematography and dramatic acting could remedy that problem. Great Echidnapolis, removed from war and strife, and growing ever more proud of their technological and social advancement, craved exotic and sensationalist entertainment.

No matter how intellectually bland.

While actors preened and pretended, a handful of staff "lit 'em if they had 'em." Blowing smoke into the growing wind outside, an echidna with green highlights took a long drag on his cigarette. In his left hand, a half empty box of cigs displayed a logo featuring a feline silhouette in an obviously provocative pose. It was the good stuff, from the tobacco plantations in southeastern Cat Country – smooth and strong. Even the humans preferred it, or so the young echidna had heard.

"Hey."

"What's up?"

Another tiny light came and went; another coughing nail for a friend in the business. Another echidna, the same age, eschewing dreadlock highlights in favor of a pair of piercings, stood between the growing storm and the failing cinematography. Craning his neck, the new guy tried to look up past the stone overhand above them.

"Nasty outside," he observed with only a little sarcasm.

"No kidding."

"Hey, did you see that so called 'specialist' they hired for this episode?"

The two laughed.

"Yeah, the 'authority on dingo military affairs.' Here to 'identify the ghost soldiers.' What a load of crap!"

"More like some hobo they picked off the streets and dressed in some secondhand uniform!"

"Nothing sadder than an out of work soldier… Man, I tell ya: this show is too much bullshit, even for ETV. And how many 'haunted encounters' are we supposed to have, anyway? Like every cave or ruin on Mobius is full of ghosts and shit?"

"Yea! right!"

Crack.

Slowly, very slowly, the two echidnas stopped laughing and looked down at the ground near their feet. Something was sticking out of the sand blasted floor.

"Is that… a hand?"

The gloved hand, dirty but still plainly functional, lifted another couple inches out of the ground before tilting down and grabbing onto the block of solid sandstone nearby. The very sandstone the two Mobians were standing on. Slack jawed, both could only watch and stammer as an arm ripped itself free from the sand and dirt.

"It's a…. g…g g…. h…"

Then, a head emerged: pink hair and the typical dark red of most echidna. Shaking the sand from her hair, Lara popped out of the ground. Given how she had emerged, it was hardly surprising that she looked frazzled and haggard.

"Damn ghosts!" She snarled, stomping the sandy ground. "You better run! I know where you live!"

"…"

Looking up, just now noticing the two on break technicians, Lara smiled and waved. And then, without warning, she leapt into the sandstorm, disappearing within seconds.

Dangling from the lower lip of one of the men, a half finished cigarette fell.

"What the Hell?"

* * *

"Hmmm." Fingers pinched the leaf and picked it from the forest floor. Those same fingers quickly brought it up to a sensitive nose that twitched, twice, taking in sharp breaths of air. Slowly, the fingers lowered, and a lone figure stood up and looked to the west.

"Finally..."

Tempest smiled, sharp teeth visible. Breaking into a run, he made no noise tearing through the thick brush. In seconds, he leaped into the trees and disappeared.

* * *


	3. Reload ii

* * *

Tails suppressed the urge to kill.

"So, after that I picked up the flag and kept running. It was all up to me, just like always. I knew I had to make it in less than a minute, so I just focused on my objective! And can you guess what?"

Tails looked at her.

"No," he said, when it became obvious she was waiting for an actual response. "What?"

"The entire obstacle course imploded! Trees were sucked in, and I was devoured by the spatial anomaly! Any second now, I'll vanish in a puff of time space paradox, and you can go without me!"

He blinked. Cursed imagination. That wasn't what she had actually said.

"I made it in only forty seconds!" Jamie said (in reality) and laughed annoyingly. "I had a whole twenty seconds to spare!"

'Obviously,' Tails thought. But said, "Pretty good."

"I know! I was the best in my class!"

Tails nodded, as if caring, and looked up at the dark night's sky. It was clear, without a cloud in sight, and sparkled with stars. It was a nice evening to just… relax. He hadn't been eager about taking this 'Jamie' girl in the first place, and had only done it because he felt sorry for her. They both knew that she was only using him to get into Sonic's exclusive party, even though she still pointlessly denied it. What? Did she think he'd break into tears because she wasn't really attracted to him?

"I was the only one in my class," he joked weakly. They both laughed, clinging to the joke like it was something really great. A wonderful moment of silence settled on them as he walked her from her dormitory to the 'old' part of Knothole. The original part. The part he had grown up in, less than a handful of years earlier. He was only twelve. She was thirteen. And yet she called him 'sir.'

Then the silence ended.

"Isn't that a pretty dress?"

Eyes half lidded, he looked over to where she was pointing. It was a clothing store (closed for the night), one of the numerous tailors that had sent up shop in Knothole during its demographic expansion last year. The only thought that crossed Tails' mind was how much water and power the store used that could have been re-routed into the town's truly important systems and venues. The dress she was pointing to was some silver sparkly thing that looked overly ostentatious. What was it with females and clothes, anyway?

He felt like saying, "How the hell should I know? I don't even wear pants."

But actually said, "Sure. I guess its ok."

"Really?" She said, somehow excited by this supposed revelation. "I like it too!"

'I'm going to throw you into the water.'

"Let's get going." He grunted, and gently pulled her along. She was already wearing a pretty fancy looking dress, or something. Well, it was less a dress and more a miniskirt and tube top. He hoped she had something better to fight in once she actually became one of Sally's little army of Freedom Fighters. The last thing he needed was to go on another mission of mercy to save a bunch of cadets.

Though it might be exciting, at least.

"Miles?"

Oh: so no more 'sir,' huh? He reminded himself that he didn't care.

"Yeah?" He asked, picking up the pace of their walking.

"The Princess will be there, right?"

He rolled his eyes. "I'm sure she will be."

A pause. Then…

"Don't you find that a little weird?"

"What do you mean, weird?"

"She's the Princess." Jamie explained, and Tails took a second to look at her. She looked… a little like Sally. Except the hair was different, and she was a little shorter than the older heiress to the Acorn Throne. And she had an actual bushy tail.

"So?"

"So… why is she going to a party with a bunch of regular people?"

"It's called slumming."

Jamie pondered that.

"What's called slumming?"

"Never mind…" Tails had enough self-control not to sigh. "Look: Sally isn't some divine figure or anything. She's a mobian like you or me."

'Well, not so much me,' he thought acidly. He could see that Jamie wasn't quite convinced.

"If you ask her, she'll tell you exactly what I just said." Tails used his learned and wise Freedom Fighter voice. "Because I learned it from her."

"So I'll be able to meet with her?"

The girl had a real one-track mind. Tails smiled, honestly amused. "I'm sure she'll be happy to meet a future Freedom Fighter. Especially one with so much potential."

"Thanks." She looked at him, blushed just a bit, and turned away.

They were almost there.

"Miles… thanks for taking me, too. To the party."

He blinked his eyes, surprised by the sudden approbations. He nodded his thanks for the thanks, and then they were there. Sonic's hut was more of a small house, as befitted the eventual and future King. It was two stories, twice the size of Tails' own hut, but Sonic never really took advantage of the extra space. He had been offered an even larger house, but had given that one away to a large family that had been reunited after the supposed 'death' of Robotnick, some time ago.

The party seemed to be in full swing. Tails had heard the music from half a block away, because of his more-sensitive-than-the-normal ears. His blue hero favored a techno (or occasionally industrial) beat with a quick pace, played at impressive volumes. Ringing the doorbell, Tails needed only wait a few seconds. Sonic was quick, but not usually quick to answer the door. On seeing his fox friend, Sonic beamed.

"Tails! You made it!" He laughed.

The two tailed fox made a little mock bow. "Yeah, well, who I am to turn down an invite from the King?"

"Issatso?" Sonic leaned in closer. "In that case, you should've shown up on time. You, my friend, are… _tardy_."

The two instantly broke into a state of laughter, and patted each other on the shoulder. Tails wiped a tear from his eye. "Oh man! It's been a while, but I deserved that! Tardy!"

"Hey," The cobalt hedgehog ribbed his friend, finally paying attention to his other guest waiting at the threshold. "And who is _this_, Big Guy? I should've known you'd bring along a girl!"

"Sir." Jamie bowed her head.

"Yeahyeahyeah." Sonic motioned them both inside. "None of that crap around me, alright. I'm not King yet. Don't want to be, either. Just call me Sonic."

"Who else is here from the old gang?" Tails asked, and not just for his own enlightenment.

Sonic counted them on his fingers. "Well… Rouge dropped by an hour ago. She's stalking about somewhere. Probably looking for something to steal. Sal's here, of course. She's by the bar."

Tails raised an inquisitive eyebrow at that fact. "Not drinking, I trust."

"Are you kidding?" Sonic shivered. "The last thing we need is her passing out again. No. She's 'socializing.'"

"Riiiight."

"Bunnie and Antoine came in, like… five minutes before you showed up. They're probably making out on the patio."

Tails nodded. Jamie seemed shocked and scandalized. Those were her _teachers_…!

"Of course…" Sonic smirked. "Amy's here."

Tails' features darkened a shade. He hid it like a pro. "Really?"

"Yep." Sonic seemed to be suggesting something.

Tails pretended not to get it. "Anyone else? What about the ol' Knucklehead?"

"Red couldn't make it." Sonic shook his head sadly. "Real shame."

"Haven't seen him in a while…" Tails started to talk, knowing that he and Sonic were about to take a trip down memory lane. It made him glad he came. Sonic and him and Knuckles, back in the good old days… back when they had ol' Robotnick on the ropes. That was great! Those were the days! Back when they'd tear out of this tiny little hide out called Knothole, and bust some robotic skulls. To an extent, Sonic was still living that wonderful life.

'I still admire you for that,' he wanted to say.

But Tails knew Sonic already knew it.

The two walked off, talking and laughing. Left behind, Jamie huffed angrily for all of a second before running off to enjoy herself. The rest of the night was a whirl of techno music, of laughing animals and cheers and boasts and toasts. Tails remembered holding Antoine up while the canine yowled some terrible song in some foreign tongue. He remembered Rouge and Amy, talking by a strobe light, blinking in and out of existence. He remembered Sonic and Sally dancing, the lights playing off their faces, the emotion spreading to every corner of the room. He remembered watching them move, enmeshed with the simple presence and closeness of each other.

He remembered… that he didn't care.

In the end, he stood apart. Alone, he watched the sky race by, the stars slowly streaking across the naked night. Mirroring life, the stars seemed free… but they, like all things, were confined and dictated to by the strings of physical limitations and laws. At such a distance, stars and planets all seemed the same… but close up they were very different. When one looked more closely, a planet would never appear to be a star.

The sting of alcohol lingered in the back of his throat, but his mind was a clear and sharp as always. Sally had, of course, forbidden him to drink until he was fourteen. Not that she was in any state to reprimand him. A single cup of the spiked punch had laid her out for most of the night, and she had retreated to the upstairs guest room. He and Sonic had walked outside soon after, and looked up at the stars for a few minutes. They hadn't talked. They just sat, and watched the time go by.

And then he, too, was gone.

Tails crushed the paper cup in his hand. In his opinion, it deformed far too easily, so he kept squeezing. Kept crushing. Until it hurt. It was a good feeling, when his claws finally bit into skin. Dropping the mashed remains of the cup, dotted red with bits of blood, he choked back a bittersweet sob. Looking around hastily, he made sure he was alone, and slowly slid down against the wall until he hit the ground. No one would see him.

No one would…

He didn't finish that thought.

He refused to finish that thought.

The stars moved, but he did not. What was the point? What was the purpose? He was only twelve, but he felt… old. Spent. … Lonely. Tomorrow, he would wake up. Tomorrow, he would comb his hair, eat some bland and disgusting breakfast… tomorrow he would work on some menial problem. Maybe a power coil that shorted out. If he was lucky, he'd have some free time to … work. He'd try and scrape together the money and equipment for some additions to the Tornado 2, or any of his other pet projects.

But none of them would really save lives.

None of them would end the war.

He could build a bomb, but Robotnick could build a bigger one. And a lot more of them. He could build a robot. But Robotnick could mass-produce anything he managed to cobble together. He could build a weapon. But… really: what good was one weapon? Or even a dozen? Nothing he could build would be a miracle panacea for the troubles of Mobius.

He could fight, too. Oh yes. While he didn't make the 'run' to Robotropolis as often as he did last year, he knew he could fight. He was fast, he was pretty tough. He was an asset. But he wasn't enough. Maybe if he was another Sonic. And then maybe if there were ten more of him. Yes. That might do it. Twelve Sonics, tearing Robotropolis apart, turning into flaming golden icons, inspiring generations to come… wouldn't that be something? But he wasn't Sonic.

He'd learned that long ago.

He wasn't Sonic. He never would be. He never could be.

"So who am I?" He asked, a whisper. "What am I?"

He heard her approach a second before she spoke. "Hello, Tails."

He didn't answer.

To his chagrin, and despite his rudeness, she sat down next to him. Red and pink moved in the distant corner of his vision, and he closed his eyes. For a while, neither said anything. Then, he broke the silence, for once hating it with every fiber of his being. "What do you want, Amy?"

"I saw you… alone."

He didn't reply.

"Crying."

"I wasn't crying." He still didn't open his eyes. He didn't want to see her. Not this close up. "What would you know, anyway?"

An angry tone: "You don't have to be so mean to me."

"Yeah?" He shot back with one of his own. "And who's gonna make me?"

"I can't believe you're still…" She cut herself short. "Get over it, Miles!"

In that instant, something inside him snapped. Eyes open, he whirled on her and grabbed her by the dress. That damn frilly red thing she always wore. He got up on one knee, and pulled her close. She squeaked, but didn't cry out, and just like that, he was back in control. He saw her then, close up. Amy was afraid, cringing… afraid of him. Did she think…?

Letting go of her, he held his head in his hands and growled. He felt his lips curl over his canines, he felt his claws flex, he felt his blood boil… it wanted release… it wanted it so badly it hurt. Slamming one fist to the ground, he ducked his head, and fought for control. What was this animal inside him that so wanted to be free? That so wanted… to cause pain…? If it wanted a fight, it found one, and Tails fought it tooth and nail, with all the savagery he could muster.

And he won.

For now.

Looking at her, he saw how she was both drawn to comfort him, and afraid to. And not just because of his outburst. He knew she was afraid to give him the wrong idea. Afraid to repeat the mistakes of the past they alone knew. Tails bowed his head.

"I… I'm sorry. I…"

"It's ok," Amy said, quietly. They sat there, for a couple eternal seconds. Tails, now under control, straightened up so that he was facing her properly. He took a deep breath, his chest rising and lowering.

"At least… I didn't break anything." He smiled weakly. "This time."

"Yeah." She seconded.

"I'm sorry about that, you know. I didn't mean…"

Amy quickly nodded.

More silence.

"Tails…?"

He had to face her. Had to get this over with. "Yeah?"

"We used to be friends. I'd… I'd like to be your friend again."

He couldn't help narrowing his eyes.

"I bared…" He took another quick look around. "I bared my heart to you, Amy. Now I'm supposed to go back?"

She used her stern tone again, but made one terrible mistake.

"Miles…"

"Don't call me that!" He yelled, and lowered his voice. "Please don't call me that, Amy. Don't call me Miles."

"I'm sorry." She said, but her tone remained firm. "But you have to get it through your thick head that I love Sonic! Not you."

"Well aren't you the lucky one! You picked the one guy you'll never have!"

That she finally slapped him was not a surprise.

"Make you feel better?" He asked, head still craning away from the path of her blow. "Wanna hit me again?"

"I do," she hissed.

He couldn't bear to look at her anymore, and turned away. Even if it made him look like a coward. He just… couldn't. He instantly regretted everything he had said. Gods, Walkers, he regretted so much of what had passed between them. And it was all his fault. All of it.

"He'll never love you… You'll never love me… " He started to laugh, pitiful sounds gurgling up from the recessed of his soul. "At least Sonic ends up happy. He is the hero. He deserves a happy ending."

"Tails…" She reached for him, and her hand touched his cheek, this time minus the sudden sting. "You used to be so happy. Can't we just go back to being happy again? Both of us? Together?"

"But not … together." He reached up and held her hand in his own. He imagined squeezing, claws digging into flesh… and quickly let go. Both hands fell away and to their respective owners.

"I'm sorry, Tails."

"I used to be sorry." He hated how he was. Hated what he was. Worse, he didn't even know either. "I used to feel sorry."

"You don't anymore?" She asked. "I don't believe that. I don't believe you've stopped caring."

"I have Amy." He slowly stood, and looked down at her. "Forget about me. For what its worth… I never thought this would have happened. For what it's worth, I wish you were happier. But… if you want that… you are going to have to leave. You won't find what you want here. I think we both know that."

Amy closed her eyes, and showing remarkable strength also stood.

"You never told Sonic, did you, Tails?"

He turned his head and 'hmfed'

"Of course not."

"Why?"

"Because… while Sonic loves Sally, I do think he likes you. If he knew… what had happened… he'd have to choose."

Amy frowned. "And you think he'd choose you?"

"I never said that." Tails pivoted until his back was to her. "He still thinks everything is pretty much what it used to be. And… in many respects it is. So he doesn't need to know. And… it is a personal matter. Between us. No one else."

She sniffled and seemed about to say something.

Tails beat her to it. "Goodbye, Amy."

"G… goodbye Tails."

And she left.

He reminded himself that he didn't care.

* * *

Sally groaned as the door to her office squeaked open. Whoever spiked the punch at the party last night was going to discover just how big a mistake they'd made. Though, knowing Sonic, it was probably him. At least nothing too embarrassing had happened, beyond it being (more) public knowledge that she couldn't hold her alcohol. At least she'd been able to spend some more time catching up with everyone in the old gang who had sort of drifted apart over the last few months.

Tails closed the door behind him softly and inclined his head in a small bow.

"Sally."

Of course Sonic had spent more time playing video games with Tails than he did talking to her, but that was to be expected. They used to be inseparable, back when Tails was still a junior member of the Freedom Fighter team, and followed Sonic everywhere. Then he started to work on his own pet projects, like the Tornado planes, and when Knothole had to expand… She knew all too well that those two didn't get to spend much time with each other anymore. She had known that would happen, too, back when she had asked Tails to help the cause by devoting his expertise to running the town.

They all had a yearning for those days.

"You can call me Aunt Sally, you know." She willed the cobwebs in her head to clear. It felt like six in the morning, even though she knew it was only twelve or so. First Antoine comes by, feeling sick (she knew how that felt), and now this. On the opposite end of the room, Tails smiled, and she saw the tips of his canines. … Wait: those hadn't been there before, had they? It was hard to remember…

"You're not that much older than I am… Aunt Sally."

She took it as a compliment. "How can I help you, honey?"

"Oh. I was actually supposed to remind you yesterday…" Tails' smile never faded. "Nicole's due to have a little check up, is all. It's been about a year since the last one, so we've got to take a look at her CPU and primary cache, and run her diagnostic program, free up any unneeded space, defrag any damaged clusters…"

The fox started to ramble on, and Sally groaned again.

It was too early for this kind of thing.

"I get the general idea." She pulled open one of her desk drawers, and took out the precious hand held computer. Folded closed, it looked like nothing more than a smooth gunmetal colored case. Very few mobians knew of its existence, and fewer still knew it came from a possible future – a gift from Queen Sally to the younger version of herself.

Tails was one of that select few.

"This won't take long. Aunt Sally." He bowed politely, and was about to leave when the Princess coughed, quickly seizing his attention.

"Have her back by eight, young man."

He chuckled lamely. "Yes, ma'am."

Quickly leaving, and closing the door to the Princess' office behind him again, Tails let out a sigh of relief. Exiting the Town Center, heading east to Rotor's Power Hub, he started to laugh. He'd really almost freaked out for a second there! But now everything was cool. He looked down at Nicole, cradled in his right hand.

"Super cool."

* * *

Antoine watched, very carefully.

And at a safe distance.

It wasn't that he was afraid. No: he told himself it wasn't that. He was just being prudent. The Princess hadn't asked questions when he'd told her that he wasn't feeling particularly well, and wanted a day or two off from training the cadets. She was still hung over from Sonic's little 'get together' the night before, and just wanted to sleep and hear as little noise as possible. As a D'Coolette, he took his job at the Academy very seriously. He was proud to teach there.

Even though it kept him from the front.

Partially because it kept him from the front. He'd long ago lost any appetite for carnage or battle. It wasn't because of cowardice, it was … just because the idea of spilling blood no longer appealed to him. Really, it never had. Now he could barely stomach it. So many mobians had died already. Entire races had been wiped off the map. It made him sick just thinking about it… but there was no alternative but to continue to fight and struggle. So he did.

That didn't mean he liked it.

Ostensibly getting some breakfast, he watched his target and tried to look discrete about it. If what he suspected was taking place, this was a serious matter far more important than a few days or even a week of time helping along a handful of recruits. He poured a glass of orange juice extra slowly, but always kept his eyes on Tails. He watched, carefully, as the young two tailed fox sat down gruffly at a wooden table, by himself, looking down at his plate with disgust.

He watched, as the fox, who he still thought of as a boy, spat a bit of bacon out of his mouth, and wiped it with a paper towel, grimacing. He watched, as Tails tried a few more times, and never seemed to keep much of anything down. Finally, just as Antoine was taking his tray to a table (he hadn't decided whether or not to try and join Tails, or sit somewhere else and keep watching), Tails stood up with a snarl, and tightly gripped his plastic tray. It bent slightly in his grip, and for a second, it looked like he was about to throw the whole thing to the side in disgust.

Then…

Tails shook his head, and walked away.

One of the attendants quickly stalked in and took the tray away. Antoine didn't miss the worried look on the little rabbit's face. It mirrored his own. The next day, the two tailed fox skipped breakfast entirely, and Antoine found him in Rotor's new workshop, building something off in a corner. Antoine knew… he knew…

It was obvious when he saw Tails' eyes.

* * *

"Yo, Rote!"

The walrus tipped his cap to his fellow engineer. "Tails. How was the party last night?"

Tails' fur bristled. "Good. Pretty good."

"Knux show up?" Rotor went back to his work, fiddling with a power relay. He snapped his fingers, pointed to some cables hanging on a nearby wall, and one of his little helpers ran off to get them.

"Nah." Tails shrugged. "Maybe next time. Rush wasn't there either, so something on Angel Island must be keeping them."

"Haven't seen him in months…"

"Yeah." The vulpine calmly walked by, Nicole still cradled in his right hand. He didn't know if Rotor saw it, but even if he did, Tails was acting confident enough that few questions would be asked. "I'll tell ya who was there, though…"

"Oh?" Rotor asked, wryly. "And who might that be?"

"Rouge the Bat." Tails reached an end of the workshop that Rotor often let him use at his leisure. Tails put Nicole down, and started getting some equipment together. One of Rotor's assistants walked over, in case the fox wanted some help, but Tails waved him off. The Power Hub was alight with the sounds of the mechanical in action. To the outside observer, it no doubt looked like some latter day House of Magic.

"Rouge was there?" Rotor perked up at that news. Still, he kept working, plugging the relay into the cables, and reconfiguring the set up. What he was doing, Tails had no idea. Probably getting ready to run some tests on that power grid problem.

"That she was."

"Did you talk to her?"

Tails barked a dismissive laugh. "Are you kidding? What would Rouge and me, of all people, talk about? We're like oil and water."

"Don't tell me you're shy…"

"Oh please." Tails booted up a diagnostic computer, and swiveled the monitor towards him at a slight angle. "I'm not the one with the hots for her…"

Rotor chuckled, and brushed a trio of long thick whiskers out of the way while he worked. "Whatever, fox boy."

"Besides…" He almost said, 'She was talking to Amy' but stuck to, "She looked busy with other people. I was happy just hanging out with Sonic."

Rotor held off asking what he really wanted to know for all of ten seconds.

"How'd she look?"

"Rouge?" Tails asked, double-checking his set up.

"Who else would I be asking about?"

"I dunno… Bunnie?"

Rotor snorted. "Why you…"

"Chill out, man. I'm just playing with you." Tails started typing at the keyboard, getting the software ready. "She looked good. Her usual color scheme. Pink/white/black catsuit."

Rotor grunted in acknowledgement.

"Hey, Rote. You think her hair's really white? You know: it is her real color, or does she dye it?"

"It's hard to tell… You never see her out of that black catsuit."

"Well, come on." The fox pressed the issue. "Take a guess. True or false?"

"I'd say… true. You?"

"No way. White on apricot? That's not a natural color combo."

"Whatever you say, kid." Rotor winced, and pulled his hand back as the power relay activated. The walrus cursed softly and held his hand. "Damnit! Jacob! … Jacob! You jackass!"

He stormed off.

"Perfect…" Tails quickly loaded up the programs he'd prepared, and went back to Nicole. Flipping her open, he heard the semi-sentient computer activate, and the AI hum to virtual life. The minicomputer's main screen beeped, and scanned him.

"Hello, Tails." It said, in its usual feminine voice. Off hand, Tails wondered if it was programmed to sound like Sally's mother.

"Hello, Nicci." He used his pet name for the little computer. He wasn't sure whether an Artificial Intelligence could be put 'at ease' or not, but it was worth a try. "How are you feeling today?"

"I feel fine, Tails. Accessing System Performance Records..." Nicole's monitor changed to display the CPU usage, memory information, operating programs, and other mundane data. "Is there a problem, Tails? I am not scheduled for a diagnostic until next month."

"I thought it'd be best to get this year's done a little early, while we have the time. Next month looks like it's going to be a hectic one."

"Very well."

He smiled slyly. "I have some new diagnostic equipment and software I'd like to try, too, if that's ok with you."

"It is… ok… with me, Tails."

"Great." He plugged Nicole into the other computer and wondered how she felt about it. It wasn't exactly a serial port, but… she was sentient. Did she like being plugged into other computers? He shook his head. There was no point or purpose to wondering about something like that. What he was going to do was really more of a violation of her personal space than an unwanted plug in her port.

Walkers alive!

That just sounded _so_ … wrong.

"Ok. Here we go. Diagnostic underway. Initiating Sleep Program." He watched as Nicole's CPU usage fluctuated, and her AI 'whole' separated. She'd be back to normal when it was done, but for now… he activated the two modifications he made to the Diagnostic probe. Nicole's fragmented AI quickly separated from the actual database it was normally wound so tightly around. Turning around, he heard Rotor walk back to his workstation, grumbling something under his breath, and go back to work on the Power Relay.

It didn't matter at this point whether he was around or not.

Nicole's voice interface wouldn't be working anyway.

Working quickly, he accessed the data files, and loaded up the dummy operating system. It took a few seconds to establish the read, and displayed the internal architecture of Nicole's data archives. Things were organized in a non-linear, non-consecutive manner… that made normal searching efforts difficult. But it made sense in a way. Nicole was designed to search herself for relevant information, so it was all source and case sensitive. No one was supposed to go nosing around in her guts and sub systems.

He was tempted to play around…

But he had to be mindful of the time limit. Nicole would not know what he had done, but her internal chronometer would be off and she would suspect something was amiss if the diagnostic took longer than expected. He could hack the chronometer, of course… but eventually she'd notice the discrepancy between her time and 'normal' time. No. He didn't have time to try even half the ideas running around in his head. He moved quickly with his primary objective.

**Freedom Fighters.**

**Profiles/Records.**

**Original FF.**

**Miles Se'Prower.**

"Miles Se'Prower? What the hell?"

A spelling mistake? It seemed unlikely. But there it was. Then again… thinking about it, Tails really wasn't positive how his name was spelled. He just knew his name: Miles Prower. It was the only thing he had from his parents, the only surviving memory from back then. They had taught him to speak, to walk, a few other things, and then they were gone. He didn't clearly remember anything before he was abandoned at the age of three. Not even their faces…

He entered the data folder.

It networked to a bunch of separate, but related, folders.

Among them was his profile. Or profiles. There were three: '32233230,' '32303237' and '3237Present.' That was strange. Why would there be three chronological divisions? He recognized the dates, at least. He was born sometime in 3223 or 3224. He never knew exactly when, and picked a random date as his birthday after Sonic had badgered him to come up with one. The summer of 3230 was when he had gotten involved in that whole Battlebird Armada affair, three years before meeting Sonic on West Island. And 3237 was this year…

This was it!

Soon… soon he'd know…

About to click on the folder for '3237Present' he hesitated. Was this right? He was about to unlock his future, or at least his potential future. Nicole had always made it adamant that they not know their futures. That wasn't her purpose. He had hacked into her and performed this deception because… what? Did he want to know his future or his past? No: he wouldn't know his future. He wouldn't look in that folder.

Even if it was only a 'possible' future.

Even if he was really, really curious what was in there…

"No!" He said it aloud, and forced his attention to turn to the '32233230' folder. That was his past. Some of it he knew, but most of it was a mystery. Surely he deserved that much, right? He had asked Nicole, years ago, if she had any information about his birth and parents. She had denied it then, and he knew now that she had been lying to him. That was the great difference between an AI and a Program.

The AI knew when to make shit up.

He was about to activate the folder, when he wondered what Nicole had been hiding, and more importantly why. It had to have been important. Nicole was inherently helpful, not petty. She wouldn't have not told him unless it was important. Did he really want to do this? Did he really need to know that badly?

"Yes."

Another tense second passed.

"Yes I do." He clicked the folder. "I need to know!"

However, the moment was not his ally. The second his decision was made, the second he clicked the forbidden folder, the system froze. He saw an instant's worth of coded language, and then it was scrambled, and the operating system collapsed. It beeped loudly, and then was silent. Tails gasped, trying in vain to break out of the crash.

"No… No! NO! NO!! Damnit!" Huffing, eyes almost red with rage, he turned to where Nicole still rested, face up next to the frozen computer.

"Please unplug me, Miles."

"So…" He voice was devoid of any warmth or affinity. "Looks like you had a few backups I didn't isolate. You must feel awfully proud."

"I do not feel proud." The little computer said, plainly. Tails took one last long look at her, turned, and slammed his fist into the keyboard with a resounding crash, smashing it into sparking debris. He took a step towards Nicole, ready to repeat the performance, when he remembered where he was. Who he was.

"Tails?" It was Rotor, heading their way. "What happened, man? You ok?"

"…" He took a deep breath, and counted to ten. "The… stupid computer has damaged clusters. Its buggy, that's all. And I kinda lost it."

"I know how you feel…" Rotor put his hand on Tails' shoulder. The fox could almost imagine himself tearing it off, feeling the spray of blood all over his face. Then the terrible thought was gone, back into the recesses of his mind whence it had spawned. Rotor never seemed to notice. "But you can't go smashing stuff like that. This stuff doesn't grow on tress, you know that!"

Tails turned away from him.

"Sorry. I… I need something… I've got one hell of a headache. You think you can give Nicole back to Sally for me?"

"Wha? Nicole?" Rotor only then seemed to notice what was going on. "I thought the diagnostic was next month."

"I… thought I'd get it out of the way today."

Rotor's face showed deep concern.

"Alright. I'll take 'er home. You get some shuteye or something. I think you've been pushing yourself a little too hard. Especially for…"

"Thanks." Tails stopped the walrus before he could finish that sentence. "… Pal."

* * *

Running.

She'd almost forgotten just how annoying it actually was to have to run to places. Not that she minded a brief jog or a long walk in the park or anything, but running across miles of desert, miles of volcanic wasteland, and miles of rolling grassland got old. Fast. There weren't even any obstacles to make the trip interesting. Just run run run run run. And she _still_ had sand in her shoes! At least for the time being…

Once she could Chaos Control again, Lara-Su swore that every single granule of sand still clinging to her body or her clothes would be sent on a one way trip to low orbit!

Finally, finally, she had reached Hydropolis. Long ago, it had been a vast waterworks feeding the great settlements of Downunda. It still processed much of the water on Angel Island, though much of it was useless and reclaimed by erosion. Many of the once vast reclaimed lands, the results of careful impoldering, were re-flooded. Only a few years ago, Robotnick had used the territory as a base of operations (like he did much of Angel Island), and in the process he had repaired many of the failing systems and restored much of their functionality. Of course he had done it for his own purposes, in the interest of feeding water and power to the Launch Base Zone by Azure Lake, but now it was in the hands of its native sons and daughters.

Hydropolis was the second largest city on the island, after Echidnapolis, and before Marble Garden City. It was more sprawling than the former, but more urbane than the latter. Hydropolis was a hub for commerce, and had naturally developed something of a cosmopolitan or even bohemian air. The city itself resembled the twisted lovechild of a waterpark and an urban center, with crystal clear canals flanked by growing skyscrapers and corporate offices still under construction.

It also had a state of the art City University.

Walking across the campus, Lara took a moment to stare up at the moon and the star lit sky. Without meaning to, she reached up to touch the chaos emerald embedded in her chest. This wasn't her first visit… or maybe it was her first, depending on how you looked at time, and if this wasn't a parallel dimension. To the point: she remembered being here before, but it had always been with him.

It was funny, in a way, to walk with him and pretend he was someone and something he wasn't. Disguised as a student, and an echidna, he had insisted on personally attending a lecture held by one of his Dark Legion colleagues: a Doctor Finetavius. Or was it "Finitevus?" She'd naturally found it odd that Miles, a being of chaos energy, would want to go to an academic conference about chaos energy… but he was quirky like that, and she'd come along to both keep him company and try and learn a little more about herself.

One night, he'd left to take a walk and clear his mind, and he'd asked if she wanted to join him. That moment, that silent walk together under the stars, was what she remembered most vividly from that entire four day long conference. It helped that she wasn't a scientific savant and hadn't had years of training in obscure super-science. However, that wasn't to suggest that she hadn't learned anything from the little trip.

Slipping into the high security lab had been easy, even without a serious use of her chaos powers. Breaking and entering wasn't too tough, not compared to trying to remember what she had to do next. The University's experimental physics department had machinery and equipment she'd seen many times before in Miles' labs, so it only took a couple minutes to figure out how to turn things on and identify which equipment she actually needed.

Sure that the security systems weren't operational, Lara got to work.

There was no doctor to go to and ask, "Hey, Doc, am I from this dimension?" Well, there WAS, but he was in Robotropolis trying to take over the world and enslave all organic life on the planet. So Lara wasn't confident he'd be able to fit her in for an appointment. There were a few _other_ options too, but none of them convenient, especially given the risk of polluting the timeline. Not that she cared about making changes to parallel worlds, but having been involved in time travel before, she knew not to (ironically) kill her father with, say, a blast of chaos energy.

That was a Bad Idea.

So she had to take care of things herself. She'd determined before breaking into the lab that the inhabitants of this world thought they were in the year 3237. Now she needed to confirm whether it was **her** 3237 or not. Just checking for historical or cultural details wasn't enough to guarantee an answer either way. The only sure fire way would be to analyze her chaos waveform and compare it to the ambient chaos waveform of the planet.

Lara wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but then again, she wasn't sure how to build a computer, either. But she could use one. She could even beat it at Minesweeper. Needless to say, she had serious skills. Isolating the waveform wasn't as easy as she'd initially hoped, though, mostly due to the fact that the machine they used needed multiple people to operate. She made due by taking staggered readings and compiling them.

The resulting waveform itself was as long and complex as her genetic code.

Or about as complex as a high order Artificial Intelligence.

Luckily, it was well within the computational capabilities of the lab's paired supercomputers and specialized software. It already had the ambient waveform on file, so the first thing she did was run a cross reference. She hadn't slept much beyond a brief catnap back in the Sandopolis ruins (damn ghosts), so while the computer ran the analysis, she caught a few winks of shuteye. She still had a few hours before morning.

Waking up, she confirmed (with no small amount of annoyance) that she was, in fact, in the past AND on her normal world. Something had gone wrong with that last Chaos Control, and it had sent her back a few years. It wasn't altogether unexpected. Some form of Chaos Control accounted for how she ended up with the emerald in her chest, how she ended up in the past (before traveling even _further_ into the past), and a lot of other things in her life. Something that important… it paid to be aware and informed.

So: she was in the past. _Again_.

There was no point grumbling about it; instead, Lara quickly went to work identifying if it was safe to try and Chaos Control again. Things would be far easier if her full abilities were safe to use, and if they didn't just keep catapulting her back and back until she ended up in the First City hanging out with Mammoth Mogul. First, she used Chaos Control on several objects, and then she ran an analysis on these objects. There was always the possibility of a time dilation that was variable by intensity or mass.

Several hours confirmed that her attempts at Chaos Control had no serious side effects. The lab rat _had_ tried to pee on her, but that was probably only natural. She'd never heard of Chaos Control causing incontinence. Basically, everything seemed to be working perfectly fine. Which brought up the question of what kicked her into the past in the first place? Location? Some external anomaly? That, she couldn't answer.

Cleaning up the data, deleting the records and vaporizing the print outs, Lara finished covering her tracks and snuck back out. Night had turned into early morning, and already she could see students shuffling to classes and the occasional Professor heading off to work. Many came by canal, as was fashionable in Hydrocity, or by some other form of public transport. Lara played the part of a student herself, politely nodding to a Professor, and smiling coyly at a somewhat cute boy with a backpack. She was in her late teens, and she'd been told (by Fiona, to her chagrin) that she was attractive "by echidna standards at least." It wasn't terribly hard to blend in… once she'd hidden the emerald in her chest and the white fur coloration around her collar that was her guardian crest.

"What to do now?" she wondered, stopping and sitting on a bench under a broad oak tree. "Contact the Brotherhood? I could… but knowing my grandfathers and great grandfathers, they'd probably try and pick my brain for information about the future. Plus, it'd be a little too tempting to try and warn them about the fall of Haven. I probably shouldn't mess around with the timeline… though it may not matter too much if I find a way to get back."

Previous experiences had taught her that changes to a timeline didn't instantaneously translate upstream. The only way to change the future for oneself was to go back, make the change, and wait around and see what happened. Or something like that. Certainly none of her previous attempts to change the past ever fixed her future… and didn't the act of just being in the past change it?

Despite being a time traveler herself, it _still_ hurt her head to think about it too much.

"What to do?" she asked again. Logically, there were at least two options to get back to the point in time she left. The first option was to find a way to time travel back. Yeah: it was easier said than done. The second option was actually very easy. Just find a nice spot and wait. Dull, maybe, but doable.

Then there was the third option:

And so Lara-Su followed her instincts.

* * *

He watched, nervously, as Tails stormed out of the workshop.

Antoine had been watching the boy on and off for several days, even before the party. His eyes had been getting darker and darker, more and more… feral. Savage looking. Then there were the outbursts of anger, and bouts of depression and sulking, the reclusive and paranoid stalking around, especially at night… And his eating habits. For almost three years Antoine had known him and suspected what he was, but said nothing.

There was no way to be sure.

And so what if he was? The boy would not want to associate with his people. Not Tails. Worse: what if the revelation caused the boy to leave? Antoine knew everyone would justifiably hold him responsible. So he justified not telling the young fox the truth because he was not yet at the age of consent. Only then would he tell, and only then would he be blameless… because leaving would be the boy's decision and not his.

Not his.

A few more days. Just a few more.

Tails had control over the situation. In fact, in an optimal scenario, he would work through the… phase on his own. It would come and go, and he would become one of 'them,' but still also be one of 'us.' A sort of best of both worlds deal. The only alternative would be telling him and driving him mad with the truth, or locking him up in a cell and waiting things out. … Or throwing him out of the city. And Antoine knew that no one who knew the boy since he was little would ever accept that as a viable strategy. Still, very soon the others would begin to suspect something was wrong.

It was best to draw at least some attention to this.

But only as much as necessary.

"A little longer…" Antoine whispered. "Just a little longer, mon ami…"

* * *

Miles away, a similar thought echoed the Freedom Fighter's.

"I've wasted too much time…"

From behind the cover of a thick forest oak, a hidden figure surveyed the town of Knothole. It had taken him much longer than expected to locate the place, but slipping through its meager patrols and defenses hadn't been too difficult. In fact, many of the patrols had been outright lax in covering their tracks. One group had even joked that they hadn't seen combat in weeks.

Tempest had little trouble infiltrating the thick woods around the area. He was close, and he knew it. Less than an hour after sneaking past the first patrol, he was all but there. From where he stood, he could easily make out a corner of the town – or maybe a low lying city - built around a ring-like central lake, and divided into quarters. It hugged the forest very closely, especially considering its density and population.

After finding it, he retreated to the highest local point, and mentally mapped out the entire place. He hadn't seen the boy, but the fox could smell his own. He was in there somewhere, mixed in among the other mobians. A swarm of different scents from at least a dozen different breeds assailed his nose. This hidden hamlet was certainly a melting pot, despite its isolation. Tempest had never encountered any place so… diverse. It was off-putting.

Still… once found, its defenses were meager.

There were only about twenty or so guards on patrol at any one time on the outer perimeter of the city proper, and twenty more covering a wide and rolling area around the town for little more than two miles. Not only was their training somewhat suspect, but so was their equipment. None even carried infrared. But this fit in with what he suspected this was: some sort of secret base. Or secret city, anyway. Not only was its best defense stealth, but its **only** real defense was stealth. And despite accomplishing that feat quite well, it was small by the standards he had come to expect from Southerners.

It was both a surprise and a disappointment that the boy was here.

The stranger resolved himself to his mission, his thoughts bitter at what he saw and smelt. 'To think the poor boy's been here all along… Probably has ties to this place, too. I'll have to try and remedy that problem...'

Keeping to the edge of Knothole, and among the trees, he sniffed the air, and soon found what he was looking for. Around to one side was a small pool, isolated from the rest of the village. The buildings here were older, and of a different style. If he had to guess, it would be that the compound was some sort of imperial retreat or residence. There was a remarkable lack of opulence, though, which made him wonder about his initial assessment. But there was little need to delve into the city planning of Southerners. There! The crouching figure peered closely, making completely sure. It would do no good to reveal himself too quickly.

Yes.

Yes!

It had to be him!

* * *

By the Source, life was easier with Chaos Control.

It had never been her style to try and do fancy things with it, like walking out of shadows or through walls or making portals. Lara used it to get around and to fight. Everything else, she tried to keep simple. At the present, she knew exactly where she wanted to be, though less to the point of why she felt the need to be there.

Maybe it was inspiration.

That sounded good: inspiration. It was as good an excuse as any.

Much better than implying she was lonely, scared, or desperate for some way to get back home. The emerald that boosted her natural powers as a child of the Guardian line meant she really had little to fear from most of the world, but at the same time, that power could potentially shine like a beacon and attract the attention of the one or two beings that could cause her trouble. And by trouble, she meant: destroy her and pick their teeth with her soul. Best to avoid those chaps for the time being, even if (in her own time) she called one of them an ally.

Inspiration.

"So… inspire me…" she whispered, sneaking around the side of a building to peek at the scene near the ring pool. She could feel, even before she saw, the two sources of chaos energy nearby. Ideally, one or both would trigger some sort of response in her own chaos emerald. It was a pretty shady plan, but similar things had happened before with other emeralds. She fondly remembered burning a certain evil Chao in her hand, for instance…

Nothing immediately obvious happened.

Lara narrowed her eyes, and focused on her self-camouflage. Fiona was better at it, since she was sneaky by nature (or rather 'design'), but Lara had practice in it, too. The trick was to both conceal your presence and cloud the perceptions of those nearby. Two of which included a young Miles Prower, and a slightly older Princess Sally Acorn. Oddly, the latter seemed to be combing the hair of the former. The scene almost made her giggle.

"Something funny?"

Lara's eyes widened.

"Hmm? I asked if you saw something funny, Lara."

She had a voice in her head.

And it wasn't the normal voice in her head either; Tikal seemed to be AWOL for some reason. This one sounded like Miles. Confusion met relief. He'd found her!

"About time you caught up to me," she thought back. "Pardon the pun."

"… I appreciate the sentiment, but it is you who caught up to me."

"Huh? Whatd'ya mean by that?"

"I have only a theory at the moment. Remain where you are."

Lara did, keeping herself hidden. She trusted Miles, absolutely and unswervingly. He would explain things when he was sure about them, and then he'd find a way to bring her back home.

* * *

"Tails… your hair is a complete mess! A total disaster area!" Sally tugged at the comb, but found it was firmly entrenched in one of Tails' tails. "This… won't come out!"

"Pull harder." Tails held the base of his tail tightly. He was glad this was done as far from the general population as was convenient. It was unbelievable! Knots in his tails! That sort of thing had never happened before. The awkwardness of having to comb out his own tails, and the apparent suspicions Sally had developed over his recent behavior (what had Nicole told her?) had led him to the conclusion that the best thing to do was let her help… at least in some way.

Sally strained, but ultimately failed. "Tails… this is impossible…"

"Keep trying!" He urged. "You almost had it out that time!"

"It's just not working… we'll have to cut it…"

Sally reached over for her scissors, lying threateningly on a nearby rock.

"What?" Tails yelped, and started to back away from her, snapping his precious tails out of her grasp. "Sally… _Aunt Sally_… you can't be serious! You aren't, are you?"

"It's just an inch or two, honey." Sally's words were reassuring, but the scissors in her right hand were not. "They'll look fine in a few days, I promise…"

Tails pointed at her, growing less and less comfortable with this situation.

"Now listen here, they're MY tails, and…"

"Tails!" Sally stomped her foot. "You get back here right now. They need a trim!"

"You'll do no such thing, woman!" The scissors were suddenly out of her hands, and in those of someone behind her.

"Who?" Sally turned, and saw only dark black fur, filling her entire vision.

Standing back, readying herself for a fight (rare was the time when someone dropped in and didn't start trouble) she finally saw him. He was fairly tall, over a full head and a half closer to the heavens; but that wasn't adequate enough description. Like Drago and most other canine Mobians, he was large and muscular. Unlike those other canine mobians, however, his chest and shoulders were colored a shade of tan matched only by his arms and legs… her mind instantly analyzed him as an opponent and as a threat. She'd beaten stronger and larger opponents before. He seemed unarmed, wearing only a studded belt with a few small pouches, but that was her only consolation. He was a hand and a half taller than Drago, and her instincts blared a loud warning.

She was about to reach for her weapon, when she realized…

She had none.

"You…!" Tails cried, and she saw him pointing at something. "You have…!"

She followed it, and saw his tail. It was a fox's tail, but… but… as it moved, she saw two black tips. After a second, it became more obvious from her point of view. This fox had two tails! They were thickly furred and looked somewhat rougher in texture than those on Tails, though the same color (except at the ends). Examining this revelation more carefully, she noted that the thinker, coarser fur (a slightly different shade than the soft tan over most of his body) traveled up all the way around his sides and back up to his neck. His hair was unruly - wild - until it met his shoulders and evened out into the rest of his body.

Looking back up, trying to look dignified, she met his gaze, and it was cold. His eyes were chips of black ice, matched by a frown, and set on a face so similar … and yet so much… harsher, it shocked her. Who was this fox? Where had he come from? Why was he here? A dozen questions tongue-tied her. Adding to her confusion, instead of starting a fight, the two tailed fox turned the scissors around and held them out.

"The boy's hair must express itself. Cutting will only aggravate it," he explained slowly, as if she was only a small child. "Are you his Keeper?"

"W… What? Wait! Just who are you and what are you doing here?" Sally backed up, but bumped into Tails. Strangely, the young fox was just standing there, staring at the new comer's torso - and tails. By the look on his face, Sally could tell he was thinking. Probably of the possibilities.

She frowned, but tried to not make it look crass.

"The boy… he hides behind you like a frightened whelp." The newcomer tilted his head slightly. "I am here on behalf of Clan Turo, of Clan Vidar. My family is Taima. My name is Tempest."

It was an unusual greeting that threw Sally for a momentary loop.

"I'm here to take the boy back home."

That, however, provoked an immediate response.

"Now wait just a second!" Sally walked up to the fox, and, on her toes, almost managed look him straight in the eyes. "Tails is one of us! If you think you can just walk in here and take him, you've got another thing coming."

"One of us? He isn't your breed." The Fox sniffed the air briefly. "I have given you my titles. What are yours?"

"Acorn," she said with total authority. "Crown Princess Acorn. Of the Line of Kings." She paused, and added, "Heir to the Golden Throne of Acorns, Duchess of Mercia, and…" Almost out of titles, she remembered one last vague one. "Despotate of Dingoland. You can call me Sally."

Tempest snorted loudly, nostrils flaring. "Well! The Crown Princess… This is a surprise! Still. You have no right to raise him. He is clearly not yours."

"H... h…How dare you…!"

The fox grinned and bowed his head just enough to be polite, in gesture at least. "I mean no outstanding offense, but you are not fit to raise this boy. I have heard of the Family Royal in the south, and have no immediate quarrel with you. But…"

His hands flexed, palm upwards. For obvious reasons, he had no gloves – though the middle finger on his right hand carried a plain black ring. Claws, at first appearing as small nails, unfurled to a wicked and curved edge.

"I will not hesitate…" he continued to speak, his tone measured, "…To rend you… limb from limb… if it becomes necessary. We are not your people. We never shall be. And the shadows shall fall over sacred places the day one of our own kneels to … _Prey_, like yourself. Hand the boy over, or I will take him."

"Why, you…" Sally was torn between yelling for help and actually trying to fight. Fortunately, the situation never came to a head.

"Aunt Sally. Calm down." Tails walked forward, between the two. "Let him explain. I want to hear this. Tempest, is it? Please explain yourself."

"Miles…" The older fox looked down at him, eyes examining and measuring all the while. "You were lost more than a decade ago. I am here to return you to the Northlands and your Clan."

"This is Tails' home!" Sally interrupted.

"Miles' home is with his people, not among these… 'Tahs… these _Prey_." Tempest growled but quickly refocused on the younger fox and not the hothead Royal. "Besides… you wouldn't want him around soon, anyway. He's halfway through the Turan'ha. If I had come three days from now, you'd be begging me to take him back to his people. Provided you still had use of your throat."

* * *

"Oh? So that's Tempest?" Lara asked, in thought.

"That's right. You two never met."

"Sounds like a nice guy."

Was that sarcasm in her thoughts? Oh, yes. It was.

"Hmm," the Miles' in her head made a soft thoughtful sound. "A matter of perspective, Lara. Imagine a human in his place. Would he act very different?"

"That's not saying much. The humans hate us."

"You see my point."

* * *


	4. Reload iii

* * *

"What on Mobius are…" Sally quickly put a hand on Tails' shoulder, and pulled him back an inch or two away the larger fox. "What do you mean? Is this some kind of Coming of Age ritual?"

Tempest let those words seep in, and laughed.

"Yes. Yes!" He pointed at her and quickly composed himself. "I suppose you could call it that."

"Princess! Princess!" "Sal! Sal, what's going on?!" "This way!"

The three mobians present watched as, from the trail to their side, a small group entered, making a complicated situation more so. Antoine and Sonic led a trio of guards. All five came to an abrupt stop when they saw what was going on, and who was at the center of it all. Acting on instinct, the three guards reached for their sidearms, and at that same instant, Tempest reached for his belt.

"Non!" Antoine cried, quickly holding up his hands in front of the guards. "Do not! You will all keeps tze weapons holstered, that is tze order!"

"Antoine's right," Sally quickly added, and the guards never finished drawing their weapons. At the same time, Tempest's hand moved away from his belt, and the small metal cylinders clipped onto it.

Narrowing his gaze at the coyote, the two tailed fox smirked. "I thought I smelt a _Keionah_ here among the sheep."

Antoine visibly bristled at the name. "I am not tze Keionah…"

"What the hell is going on here?" Sonic cut off his friend and old associate. "Who is this joker?"

Tempest turned to Princess Sally. "Who is this … creature? Why does he call me a joker?"

"The name is Sonic the Hedgehog, pal!" Sonic smirked his characteristic grin, but before he could say any more, to elaborate on the joker comment, he got a closer look at the fox. The sight of two tails momentarily impaired his ability to speak, and so his lips moved but no sounds came out.

"Tiresome…" Tempest held out his hand to Miles and motioned for him to come closer. "Miles. To me, boy. I will take you to your kin. I will train you through the Turan'ha."

"What… what is this Turan'ha thing?" Tails shook his head. "I don't understand…"

"It is…" Tempest faltered for appropriate words. "It is the Turan'ha! A… a..."

Antoine stepped forward. "He speaks of tze 'Rut.'"

"Rut?' Tempest frowned at the word, and then shrugged. "That is a close enough translation. Thank you, Keionah."

"I am not tze Keionah!!" Antoine yelled, getting angry. "Do not be calling me that!"

"And how can you not be one, bedding among these sheep like you do?" Tempest snarled, bearing two long canines. "Disgraceful! You and our honor-less one-tail cousins! A crippling pox on you all for your cowardice and betrayal of the Kitsune who embraced you as brothers!"

"That is tze ancient history," Antoine answered, coldly. "You cannot take Miles. The Princess speaks tze truth. This is his home, we…"

"**Is** that the truth?" Tempest crossed his arms and his eyes fell on Tails. "I will believe it only if it comes from the lips of my kinsman. A fellow Kitsune. Are you happy here Miles? Can you look me in the eyes and tell me you do not yearn, at the very least, to learn who you are? **What** you are? You know you are not one of them. You will never BE one of them. These Prey."

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Tails voice was resolute. "But these are my friends. I'd prefer you don't insult them."

Tempest didn't argue the point. "But they are not your kin, are they? Miles?"

Tails wanted to yell that they were.

But…

"Are they?" Tempest shook his head. "No. They are not. You feel hot coals in your bones. You feel energy in your fists and claws. You hear a cry, but you know not how to heed it. This is the Turan'ha."

The younger fox frowned. "I prefer facts to metaphors, if you don't mind."

Tempest blinked at this, a little thrown by the response. "It can not be easily described in the presence of outsiders… the Turan'ha is the trail through which we enter adulthood."

His words sounded reasonable, and Tails frowned and closed his eyes as he thought it over. His dissatisfaction with his role in life had become all but obvious, and at war with his devotion and affection towards those close to him. One thing remained clear: the prospect of having an origin that wasn't simply one of mutation and abandonment was extremely appealing. That there could be a while race of creatures like himself – that he wasn't the only two tailed fox, that he wasn't the result of some genetic disease or dysfunction – it was exciting. Not only for himself, but academically and intellectually as well.

"I know how you are feeling," Tempest continued. "I know what you are experiencing. The confusion and anger. Because I went through the same trial when I was your age. It will come and go in good time."

"Come..." Tempest's hand was still outstretched. The claws were gone. "I will not take you away from these… from _this_ place… unless you want to. You have my word. On my honor, I will only offer you the truth, and the choice. I will only show you the path."

Tails was silent, considering.

His inclination was to accept the offer, but he also had work to attend to and plans to see to fruition. Was it really responsible to put some quest for personal satisfaction ahead of his duty? There was also something distinctly foreign about Tempest that Tails couldn't entirely discount. Not for the first time, he asked himself what Sonic would do, even though he knew that his situation and Sonic's were not the same. Sonic's life was carefree; was it any wonder he simply came and went as his whims ebbed and flowed? So Tails was torn: accept, and indulge his curiosity, or decline, and resume the routine he had fallen into.

"Who else could show you through the Turan'ha? Who else would even have a claim?" Tempest turned to Antoine. "Well, Keinoah? Not you, I trust."

"I've had just about enough of hearing this guy talk…" Sonic took Antoine by the shoulders and tried to move him out of the way, but amazingly, he refused to budge, and kept his eyes in the large fox. At the same time, Tempest's eyes motioned towards Sally. Antoine frowned, and shook his head. Tempest snorted. That only left one.

"Wait…the Hedgehog!?" Tempest suddenly blurted out. "You lie! He was raised by a low born 'Tah?! A creature without even a Clan? How could even you allow this to come to pass?"

"It was too late when I was finding them." Antoine didn't flinch at the insult. "And… I did not think myself fit to try…"

"He is a Prey," Tempest hissed, "I will NOT acknowledge his authority over the boy. Not in a thousand cycles! Not when the poles bleed red and the skies snow fire and ash!"

"A Community Claim, then!" Antoine said, quickly. "All of us. We all helped raise him."

Kept out of the conversation, Tails quickly found his patience wearing thin. "Hey…"

"You have no basis for a community claim." Tempest smiled, bearing teeth, but still addressing Antoine. "And even if you did, you'd lose the challenge. And you know any Challenge is to the Death. I'd have your throat before you even drew your weapon."

Sonic finally pushed Antoine out of the way. "That's it! If it's a fight you want…"

"Sonic… don't!" Sally stopped him. "I'm sure we can come to an agreement here. Without violence."

Antoine picked himself up off the ground. He shot an angry glare in Sonic's direction, before composing himself and brushing the dust off the cuff of his coat.

"If you are being that confident…" Antoine said, calm belying a hasty plan. "Accept the challenge, Vidar. Or maybe you are for to being afraid the 'Tah will defeat you… if you are letting him pick tze contest?"

Tempest growled at the insult. "Your plots are as obvious as they are fruitless, Keionah. I accept, in the name of my Clan. What is this contest to be that I will be bested by a little hedgehog in it?"

"A race," Antoine quickly answered, before Sonic could speak up. However, no sooner did Antoine make the suggestion than Sonic relaxed. If there was a contest to be had, a race would settle it in their favor.

"A…race? Are you blind, Keionah? Me? Against him? He's too small and weak to have a prayer in a race against me. But I shall humor you if I must." Tempest walked over to Antoine, who nodded his head slightly. Turning, Tempest stood before Tails.

"Come with me, Miles. There is much I must tell you."

"Wait…" Tails voice wavered as he seemed to reconsider. "How long will this take? And what if, after all this, I don't want to go anywhere?"

"If you wish to stay, that is your business." Tempest looked at the others. "But you will only find lasting contentment among your own kind. _That_ is the truth of this world. As for that 'Tah…"

"The name is Sonic!!" The hedgehog in question yelled. "I think you'll remember it when I beat you."

"Yes. That one," Tempest reared to his full height. "He may be your friend, but he will never understand what you are. Like it or not, young Miles, you are kitsune. Just as a human is a human, a dragon is a dragon, and a mobian is a mobian. Our races are not meant to… mingle. This is your fate, as it is the fate of the tree to branch and the flower to bloom. If you want to know of your people, follow me. Do you trust your kin, boy? Or fear them?"

"I wouldn't say I'm afraid." Tails crossed his arms. His eyes turned to Sally and Sonic, and nodded slightly. "Ok. Ok! This could be interesting and I have nothing to lose. I'll come... For now."

"Good." Tempest smiled, and his features lightened slightly. "You won't be disappointed."

At once, Tempest turned and headed back to the forest that flanked the ring pool compound. Tails paused, looked over his shoulder at his adopted family, and then followed the older Kitsune. The last thing Sonic, Sally and Antoine saw of him were his twin tails, moving back and forth behind him. And then the darkness of the Great Forest swallowed him up, and he was gone.

* * *

"A race, huh? And he actually expected to win? I guess that explains how things turned out like they did. … Miles?"

"Yes…" the voice in Lara's head began to fade, and she tensed. "Wait a moment, and then follow me. I…"

And with that, he was gone, and she felt the loss through her emerald. It was almost wrenching to have him very nearly there, with her, and then gone again. It wasn't just the power, either, but the sense of belonging. The whole situation was strange; it wasn't exactly the best moment to strike out on her own and prove what a rebellious teenager she could be.

On the other hand, this was an opportunity to see history.

* * *

"Ant…" Sonic looked over his shoulder, the two retreating figures now nowhere in sight. "This is way past uncool. What just happened? How did you know what he was talking about?"

"It is being very complicated." Antoine waved to the three guards. "Leave us."

The guards looked from their Captain, to the Princess, and then back. Sonic felt overlooked, but didn't dwell on that fact. He'd never been interested in any sort of command position, so despite being an acclaimed hero, no one really looked to him for orders or permission. Antoine, on the other hand, had few qualms about administrative work. The three soldiers saluted, turned, and took their leave.

"Well?" Sonic asked, more insistent than before. "At least a few explanations would be a nice change of pace, don't you think?"

"He will be back," Antoine assured them. "He may be a barbarian, but he is having his honor, and the honor of his people. He is one of tze Northern Foxes. He is tze Kitsune."

"Kitsune?" Sonic scratched his head. "I've never heard of them."

"Why does that not, how you say: surprise me?" Antoine replied, sarcastically. Sonic frowned his disapproval. "Tze Kitsune are little more than tze legend, now. Like tze Dragons and other creatures of myths. When I saw tze boy, even I was not sure that he was one of tze pureblood. I did not want to mention it, for it was dangerous."

"Sonic… can you go get Nicole?" Sally scowled at the Captain of her Royal Guard. "Antoine and I need to talk. I'll fill you in on things when you get back."

"I'll be back in twenty seconds. And that's only because of the stairs." Sonic gave Antoine one last angry look, and took off at high speed. When he was out of sight, Sally poked Antoine hard, finger grazing the Royal Seal on his left breast.

"You! If you knew this would happen, why didn't you tell me?!"

"I did not know this would be happenings!" Antoine held up his hands. "You must be believing me! I was not sure he was tze Kitsune!"

"And how," Sally asked, growing angry, "Could you not _be sure_?"

"He did not acts like one!" Antoine said in his defense. "I was thinking, maybe he was maybe tze halfbreed or somethings…"

"You seem to know better now. Why?"

"It is the Rut." Antoine tried to explain himself, and the situation, better. "It is when tze Kitsune mature. Their puberty. He is goings through it, and it ees a dangerous time… I was going to tell you everything, my Prinzess… but I wanted to wait! I did not want to alarm…"

"Well, I'm already pretty alarmed, Antoine." Sally sighed. "Enough with the excuses. Just tell me: what do you know about these Kitsune? I've never heard of them outside the myths. They're supposed to be extinct except for the occasional mutation in the general population."

"Like I said," Antoine repeated. "They are creatures of myth, like tze Dragons. We did not believe in them until we met Dulcy, no? The Kitsune, no one had contact when them… not since tze times of your Great Grandfather…."

Sally knew the story involving her ancestor, the great King Melchior the Mighty, and the Kitsune. After the first war with the overlanders and humans, Melchior, eager to add yet more lands to his domain, turned his attention north. The canine tribes there had long been enemies of the kingdom, but recently many had begun to migrate south and openly align with the growing power of the King. An assembly of nobles had been convened that petitioned the King to enter their lands as monarch, and under that pretext he marched his army north.

The Kitsune were supposedly a cabal, like a religious and military order, that ruled over the northern tribes. Children born with the two tail mutation were taken into the order and raised to become savage warrior priests. According to history, King Melchior fought the northern tribes for years as the civil war among them tore the population in half. Eventually the Kitsune retreated to the north and went extinct. The northern tribes aligned with Melchior eventually became the backbone of the royal military.

Sally had known there was an element of victor's narrative to the story, but…

Sonic skidded to a halt a few feet next to them, holding Sally's pocket computer. He handed it over. "Here ya go, Sal… So: what'd I miss?"

"Antoine says they were like Dulcy," Sally said, quickly. "Creatures most mobians don't think exist anymore."

"They live in tze north. In the tundra forests," Antoine continued. "In tze small tribes and families. They are hunters and warriors… they used to be raiding many other places, many other peoples… many years ago. But they had not been seen since tze time of your Grandfather, King Fredrick. I only know they exists because… because..."

"Because why?" Sonic leaned closer to the less-than-brave coyote. "Why, Ant?"

"My father… he did meet with one of them." Antoine cringed; embarrassed he had never told anyone this before. "A few times. I was not supposed to be looking, but I did follow him… and tze fox, he said he would be killing me if I told. And my father… my father who is… was… so brave, he was afraid of tze fox, too! My father took tze secret to his grave, and though I promised on my honor never to speak of it, Princess, I speak of it to you!"

"What was General D'Coolette doing with…?" Sally suddenly got it. "He was a spy, wasn't he? Wasn't he?"

Antoine bit his lip, and didn't look her in the eye. "He was loyal to tze crown, Princess. I do not have tze proof… but I know my father. He was loyal to tze crown! I know in my heart that he was working with them so as to always be sure they would not attacks again. Not when tze Kingdom was vulnerable during tze war with tze overlanders, and not when Robotnick took over. They are paranoid, you are seeing? Who else could assure them that we were not tze threat?"

Sally backed off; Antoine's father was a hero, both for his son and for many others. General D'Coolette had organized the first glimmers of resistance in case Robotnick took over, and was the one who had set up the base in Knothole. He had led what remained of the loyal Acorn Army against Robotnick when he seized power, and had ended up roboticized for it. He was sent to Mercia for several years, under the guise of the High Sheriff, and after his de-roboticization he returned to Knothole. He had died, only a few months ago, of natural causes. He was no traitor. Had he been working in secret, perhaps trying to persuade these Kitsune to aid the Kingdom in the war?

"Nicole." She activated the so named computer. "What information do you have on the Kitsune?"

"I'm sorry, Sally. Those files are time encoded and classified Azure/Cherubim. They can only be unlocked early in case of a dire emergency - a threat to the Royal Line, or the Existence of the Kingdom."

"Cherubim?" Sally frowned at that. 'Cherubim' was the second highest level of security. Only 'Seraphim' was higher, and that covered the deepest and darkest secrets of Mobius and the Future. Nicole would never divulge that level of secure information, no matter how much Sally argued with her.

"Can you tell us anything about them? Anything at all?" Sally pleaded. "Nicole… I'm worried. At least tell me: is Tails… is he one of them?"

There was a delayed response.

"Yes. He is."

"Nicole…" Sally continued. "Thank you. Please: is there anything else you can tell us? Surely not all of it is that critically important?"

"I… can divulge some information… Please wait…"

Sonic gave Sally a quick wink. Sally nodded.

Antoine still looked nervous.

Nicole began:

"The Kitsune are a mobian race of bipedal mammals, classified 'Mobia Vulpes Coun.' The Kitsune or Northern Fox is about the size of a large mobian wolf (50-58 kg). The coat varies. It is most often a rusty red color, but varies regionally from sandy yellow to pitch black. Most remarkable about the Kitsune are the separation of their lower vertebrae, and the resulting 'two tailed' anatomy. There are also undocumented cases of up to nine tails, but these remain unverified. The tails vary by coat color, but always end with either a white or black tip that match the color of the fur on the chest, paws and belly. The ears are rounded, and usually either amber, blue or black. In their adult stage, Kitsune have a wider and larger jaw than normal mobian vulpines (Mobia Vulpes Vulpes), with an extra set of molars in the lower and upper jaws."

"An ancient breed, the Kitsune are thought to have branched from the single tailed vulpine strain when it crossed over with a now extinct cousin species (Mobia Vulpes Alpinus). The Northern Foxes are reclusive and territorial by nature, but also highly predatory and extremely aggressive. The Final Northern Border War was the last documented official contact between the Kitsune and the Kingdom of Acorn. The war lasted exactly twelve years, starting in 3121 with the annexation of all mobian lands up to the Polar Cap by decree of King Melchior Acorn. It ended in 3133, with the defeat of the Third, Fifth and Sixth Legions and the withdrawal of interests from the northern quarter of the main continent. My apologies, Princess. No other information can be divulged at this time."

* * *

Lara listened closely with chaos enhanced ears.

Hearing Nicole's little explanation, she smiled at the implication. "Looks like I'm not the only one messing with the past… or was she programmed to 'reveal' all those so called secrets?"

It was something she'd have to ask, when she got back to her time.

Still hiding her presence, Lara slipped away and headed for the forest.

* * *

"That all happened over a century ago," Sonic complained. "What does that have to do with what's happening now?"

"Know the past, lest you repeat it," Sally lectured. "You and I should know that better than anyone. We've actually been to the past once, and Nicole here is from the future."

"A potential future," Nicole corrected.

"There is somethings else Nicole did not mention…" Antoine said quietly and quickly got their attention. "That last war… the Kitsune did not fight it alone. A few other peoples, peoples considered tze cousins to tze two tailed foxes, also did fight."

"They are killing their enemies, Prinzess, but building nothing…" Antoine looked up. "I am of what was once called tze Surni'var Clan, though it has been long since I heard the word. My family, she changed to D'Coolette after the surrender."

"Hold up. You don't have two tails, Ant!" Sonic pointed out, tilting his head to look at Antoine's flank. "…Or DO you?"

Antoine rolled his eyes. "Non. I do not have tze two tails. Tze southern clans are not having the trait for two tails… they were not even Kitsune. Not even foxes. But they traded with tze Kitsune, and knew of tze Kitsune," he answered plainly. "We grew tired of the wars… we wanted to be like everyone else… we were wanting civilization."

"I take it the other Clans… the Kitsune Clans… disagreed?" Sally looked out into the forest. This meant they were a race of people, and not just some group of mutants. "Tails…"

"Tze Kitsune would never change their ways." Antoine sighed. "He ees one of them. That much ees certain now. And, like I was saying, he ees in the Rutting. Perhaps it ees for tze best that Tempest take him…"

"He's not even fifteen!" Sonic slammed his fist in his palm. "How can he be rutting? At his age?"

"He is having signs … of the Wild, you see. Of the Northern clans…of him having tze rougher fur, and tze teeth and claws that grow when they mature. He ees also being more aggressive and territorial, and loose in tze control… in a way, it's being most fortunate this is happening now. I would not to be able to train him myself as I had planned. He would be too strong."

"Are you sure you didn't swallow a Chaos Emerald or something? This… this is crazy!" Sonic made for the forest. "I'm leaving. To get Tails and bring him back."

"No!" Antoine literally jumped and held Sonic back by his shoulder. "You cannot! I am sure you will win, but you should be thinkings of the race. Trust me. The only one who can be helping Tails now, ees his kin."

* * *

"Here." Tempest stopped before a small, mostly dead tree. "This will do."

With apparent ease, he shattered a low hanging branch, splintering it at the base, and then threw it to the ground. Breaking off the branches, and making a pile of dry leaves, he started a fire in a nearby clearing. Sitting down in front of it, he looked at his charge with a sense of reserved calm.

"Miles," he said. "Sit. You have questions."

"I do." Tails also sat down in front of the fire, opposite Tempest. "First of all, my name is Tails."

Tempest raised an eyebrow, curious. "What do you mean? You are Miles Se'Prower."

"Miles Prower. I know. But I prefer to be called 'Tails.'"

"You have an odd way of pronouncing Clan words… Your full name, I have been told, is Miles Na'Turo Se'Prower. It means Miles of the Clan Turo and the Family Prower. As a kit, you only use the Family or blood-name, Prower, but once maturity is reached, it switches to the Clan name: Turo. So after the Turan'ha ends, your name should be Miles Na'Turo."

"I still prefer to be called Tails," the younger fox repeated. "Humor me for the time being, if you please."

"If you so prefer, I will address you as you are accustomed." Tempest smiled in the half-light. "You are of age, after all. Tails."

"Good." Tails was content with the concession. With that out of the way, he felt justified in getting to the most pressing question he had. "Now, tell me about my parents."

"Dead… back when you were but a kit." Tempest growled. "They were warriors. Proud. Strong. Your father was Eblis Na'Turo, your mother Aurora Na'Turo. Both Prower, your father's Family, and Cecrops, your mother's, are strong and noble bloodlines."

"Eblis… Aurora…" Tails said the names, but felt very little in doing so. He couldn't remember them. They were just words, like chromosomes: part of the body, but void of emotional attachment. He had been raised by others, Amadeus and Rosemary, both lost now.

"Were they... nice?"

"Nice?"

"Were they good people? Why were they killed, and not everyone else?"

"You misunderstand," Tempest said softly. "They left the village and did not wish to part with you. They went south as a raiding party with the blessings of the Turo War Leader to take the head of some mobian commander. The exact circumstances around their deaths remain a mystery."

"They were Raiders?!" Tails was aghast. "They were assassins?!"

"They were warriors … Tails. Your **people** are warriors. We do not make secretaries and factory workers, my boy. We are the children of Melchisedec! The blood of a thousand generations of proud fighting males and females, the fiercest and greatest ever to live, flows in your veins. You feel it. Now, more than ever."

"I… I feel like I want something." Tails admitted, looking down at his hands. He still wore gloves and shoes, while Tempest wore heavy moccasins and went gloveless.

"But I don't know what. I don't know what I want…" he admitted. "I thought I could be happy helping others accomplish their dreams. I thought I'd be happy if I was just needed, useful… appreciated. Now, when I feel apathetic, it turns to anger and frustration… so easily…"

"You are in the Turan'ha. A phase of extraordinary growth." Tempest poked the blazing campfire with a tender green sapling. "You are somewhat undersized for a kitsune of your age. Over the next week you will grow at an accelerated pace. Ideally, you will grow to be a little shorter than myself. The fur in your back is already becoming coarse, forming a thick winter coat, and your tails - the trademark of our people - will become more unruly for a time. You will come to associate with females in the area…and what you crave, young Turo, is blood."

"Blood?!" the younger vulpine shook his head in disgust. "I'm not a vampire!"

"The Turan'ha brings out our most base instincts. You are a hunter, and what you need is what every hunter needs: prey." Tempest smirked, the light from the fire playing off his features. "Which, tonight, we shall find. I can see it in your eyes, Tails. You need to hunt."

"You're wrong. I don't have any interest in killing some poor animal."

"No?"

"No! I don't!"

"We shall see, boy. You cannot deny your blood. You must hunt; and you will. I am here to train you, and keep you from losing control over the rut and letting it dominate your mind and actions. Tell me… do you know why I camped here?"

Tails looked around. It just looked like any normal section forest… but, deep down, something subconscious told him otherwise. "Game trail. This is a game trail."

"Exactly!" Tempest grinned ferally, showing his teeth. "Now…we hunt!"

* * *

Hidden from perception, Lara watched the exchange.

"Miles?"

"It is… surreal. To see these events again through your eyes."

"Surreal good or surreal bad?"

"A… a little of both I think," Miles sounded apprehensive. "I would not call it regret, but… misfortune perhaps. I was somewhat unkind to those I love in the days that followed this meeting. The Turan'ha is a powerful experience that often clouds reason."

"Oh?" Lara smiled to herself, casually leaning against a tree. "I can't wait to see what you were like as a horny teenager! Did you get acne?"

He chuckled, and she felt a spike of reciprocal warmth spread through her body from the emerald. Miles never did laugh much, in all the time she had known him, but when it did it filled her with hope. None had done so much for so many and suffered so much in the process. If he was unkind, it was because sometimes ruthlessness prevailed where kindness could not.

"There they go…" she mused, still thinking rather than speaking aloud. "Miles?"

"…"

He was gone.

It was just as expected. Proximity to him triggered some sort of resonance or connection in the emerald, allowing it to contact the him from her natural time (or the emerald's natural time anyway). It was one step towards getting back home, though how she could go from one to the other, Lara wasn't sure. Miles had advised her not to rely entirely on her chaos powers; both Tails of this time period and Sonic were sensitive to chaos energy, and could detect something amiss. Tempest was blind as a bat to it, but Nail would become a problem later.

Sighing, Lara stood alone in the forest and pondered her next move.

* * *

"Who knows what's happening to him out there…" Sally leaned against the window. Hers was the largest private domicile in Knothole, though such a title was deceptive. It was still only two stories tall, built into the base of one of the Great Forest's giant Ironwood trees. There were really only a few rooms to it – a bedroom, a guest bedroom, and a bathroom on the top floor, a tiny pantry downstairs along with some storage space and a living/meeting area. It was one of the oldest of Knothole's buildings, dating back to its founding, and being in the center of the town, it still had a good view of the so far undeveloped Northern Quarter that opened out to the Great Forest.

"And I keep imagining…" The Princess Acorn trailed her fingers down the glass. "He'll just came back, smile, and be normal again."

"He was never really normal, Sal. None of us were. But he'll be back soon enough." Sonic was on the opposite end of the room, leaning against the door. Waiting patiently wasn't something that came naturally to the speedster, but self-confidence had helped to reign in his impulses to do something hasty. "And he'll bring that Tempest Slow Mo friend of his, too. We'll see who he calls 'Tah' tomorrow! I don't know what that weird word means, but I just know it ain't a compliment."

"It means 'Prey', Sonic."

"Prey?" Sonic stopped to consider that. "He won't try and eat me, will he?"

"Maybe." Sally rolled her eyes. She had been sarcastic, but kitsune, like tanuki, saurischians and dragonkin (all thought to be extinct), **were** rumored to be cannibals… Not that she usually put much stock in folklore and inflammatory legends. Great War propaganda has cast the humans as 'mobian-eaters' too, and she knew now that that was definitely untrue.

"Feh! He's too big and slow to race me… No way he even has a chance! Musclebound freak…"

Sally was starting to get annoyed with his attitude. "Calm down already, would you?"

"Hey...! What's the problem, Sal? You're not thinking Tails might be better off with him, are you?"

Sally looked over her shoulder at him, and then back to the window. She also changed the subject; she had seen how frustrated Tails had become over the last year, after that Black Arms mess in Downunda. She had had high hopes for him when he first came back from Station Square, but then he had helped her father improve the Royal Army and gone off in other tangents, most of which she disapproved of. The massacre he had seen in Downunda had only hardened his resolve to win the war through measures she considered somewhat extreme. What was the point winning the war in a way that betrayed their history and traditions as mobians?

"You know," she said, "He said Tails would grow up like him… do you think that's possible? It can't be…"

"Yeah, I can't see it either." Sonic wasn't so dense he missed how Sally had switched topics on him. "I'd hate for Tails to get all big, stupid and slow, like his new buddy."

"You really don't like him, do you? You hardly even know him."

"Lemme say this, Sal: Tempest and St. John are on the same page, in my book."

"Uh huh." Sally nodded, half listening. "He's got a nice butt, though…"

"… WHAT?!"

"It's true. Don't tell me you never noticed that with Tails, either?" She couldn't help but smile at the shock on his face. "Probably because of the two tails. Compact muscle and all."

"Oh… my… God." Sonic took a step back. "I guess Tails isn't the only one in rut around here."

Sally smiled, seductively. "Don't be sour. I think yours is pretty good, too."

Sonic's eyes widened, and he did an about face, hiding his blush. "G… geez, ok… you're really weirding me out, here, Sal… I mean…"

"I'm just kidding!" She laughed, and patted him on the shoulder. "I just want you to lighten up."

"Really?" he asked, but tried to sound like he didn't care. Needless to say it didn't work out, and he ended up sounding silly.

"You frown any more, and you'll look like Shadow."

He put his hand on hers, and sighed. "Thanks. …I think."

"Any time." Sally was tempted to slap him on the behind, but didn't want skid marks decorating her walls. He really was so cute when he was clueless! Putting her other hand on his other shoulder, she started to push him out. "Go on, now. Get some sleep and win that race tomorrow. That's an order, mister!"

"Yeah, yeah, right away, your imperial majesty," Sonic replied, sardonically. Giving her a quick wink, he left on his own accord. One out of her room, he relaxed. There was nothing to worry about, he told himself. He'd win the race, and Tails would stick around. Even if they weren't spending every other waking moment together, Tails was still his best friend. He couldn't lose him.

He couldn't lose tomorrow.

* * *

The next day came quickly, and with first light came the race. Antoine was the first up, and within minutes, had brought the others to the Ring Pool. Despite some debate on the matter, the decision had been made to only include Bunnie and Rotor into the circle of mobians who knew of the situation. Sally had, off hand, suggested the possibility of posting ten or twenty Guards around 'just in case a point needed to be made,' but Antoine assured her that it wouldn't matter. And that it wouldn't be necessary.

No sooner had those five gotten to the Ring Pool clearing, than the two foxes move out from the cover of a tree above them, silently landing behind the Freedom Fighters. The mobians whirled, facing the sudden intrusion, and Antoine had nearly drawn his sword at the thought of a sneak attack. But neither kitsune tried anything, preferring to simply stand where they landed. Finally Tails stepped forward.

"Sally!" Tails held out his hands and walked towards her. "You didn't see us?"

He sounded amused and enthusiastic and excited. She hadn't seen that in him in a long time.

"No… I didn't…"

Her eyes wandered to Tempest, who still stood a short distance off, looking oddly calm and composed, and something else… Then Tails hugged her, obviously feeling happier and giddier than she had remembered in a long time. Sally 'woofed' from the displaced air that used to be in her lungs, and quickly breathed a sigh of relief when the kitsune let go. Tails was deceptively strong – strong enough to destroy SWATbots with his bare hands – stronger than her, in fact.

"I suppose it was his idea to surprise us?" She asked, not too pleased.

"Not his. Mine. I thought it might be interesting to try." Tails smiled, and, as he did, Sally noticed his teeth. His canines were larger than she remembered… or was it just a bit of an illusion? Tails had grown quite a bit over the last year, but Sally hadn't really given much thought to it before. It was only natural, after all, but now she started to wonder about it. At the party, he had been about Rouge's height, hadn't he?

"Aunt Sally, we went…" Tails paused in mid-sentence. Stepping another foot away from her, he looked over his shoulder at Tempest briefly before looking at her again. "We went camping. I learned wilderness survival. It was like a… vacation. No biggie. Learned some new things."

"You've… you've really grown Tails. You're hair's still a mess, though!" Sally reached out and ruffled the now rough mat of fur on his head with both hands, laughing softly. He smiled and endured it, trying in vain to keep his three bangs from splitting. Sally remembered then that he had been only a little shorter than her back before he left for Downunda to relieve the army in Westopolis. He was growing into an adult mobian, and she hadn't even thought about it before.

"The hair… It will clear up when he's matured more. Though it'll still frill up again from time to time, given how often he has it groomed." Tempest cracked a grin, and the fur along his back seemed to bristle and stand on end before calming down again as he walked forward, past Sally and Tails, Bunnie and Rotor, to Sonic. "The boy shows great promise, 'Tah. I will not soil him by letting him grow among the weak. …You will lose."

Sonic just smiled cockily. "You obviously haven't been around these parts much, Pal. But you'll learn who's got the speed around here soon enough."

"The race is to be tze first to reach tze third goalpost at the end of tze Academy advanced training course. You will be needings to run straight that way though tze forest." Antoine pointed past the Ring Pool, and into the woods. "After about tze mile, you will see tze course. Eet is a rough path with forest theme'ed obstacles. The goalpost, she ees at the end of thees."

Tempest nodded once, understanding. Sonic made a show of yawning.

"At moi's signal, go." Antoine held up the traditional checkered flag.

Tempest put a foot forward, facing the intended direction. He lowered his head and posture, arms straight to the side. "The boy told me you were fast, 'Tah. I will judge his rather lengthy praise of you for myself."

"Yeah? Well, don't choke on my dust _that _quickly."

"GO!"

The flag fell from Antoine's hands, and before it even hit the ground, both Tempest and Sonic were already almost out of sight; only a small cloud of smoke and dust, low to the ground, marked their passing. Tearing through the brush in long strides, careful to weave through or over any obstacles, Tempest kept up a brisk pace, while trailing Sonic. Then, the hedgehog accelerated, and blazed away, taking a fairly secure lead. Smiling, Tempest clenched his fists and accelerated himself, up to his full speed, catching up to the blue streak after side stepping a forest ramp to maintain his acceleration on the ground. Reaching his maximum velocity, Tempest jumped, up and over, through a set of trees and branches, around a corner, making a quick landing, and took the lead. Over his shoulder, he could see the look of surprise on the 'Tah's face.

* * *

"Not bad…" Sonic thought, watching the much larger Tempest crash through the foliage like it wasn't there. "All that bulk doesn't seem to slow him down, even when stopping or making sharp turns… Not the best I've seen, but pretty darn good. Still slower than Mina, though. …Ah well, enough playing around! Time to Meet the Blue Streak!"

And then, to Tempest's surprise, the hedgehog accelerated AGAIN, up and over a hill, spinning as he did to avoid wind resistance and bash through a log in his path.

"I… Incredible…" The hunter thought to himself, watching Sonic rapidly catch up to him. "Looks like the little rutter was right after all. I do believe I'm going to lose. Better try and keep the lead as long as I can."

In front of him, Sonic could see Tempest look back, growl, and turn forward again. Grinning like a madman, Sonic knew he had won. Tempest was going at a good clip, but wasn't picking up and speed. But… then, up ahead and without warning, did he just see Tempest's tails… move? Leveling out behind the kitsune, they straightened out sharply.

Most kitsune had a measure of control over their tails, using the two of them as a means of balance and counterbalance. Tails had demonstrated last night that he could actually spin them to achieve lift. Somehow, the boy was able to use chaos energy to alter the structure of his namesakes. Suffice to say, this wasn't a normal ability, and it had come as a true surprise to hear that Tails had any chaos sensitivity at all. Most kitsune, Tempest included, were deaf to it.

Tempest felt a small speed boost as he fixed his running posture, but it was no where near enough to win. Conserving his energy, Tempest quickly made the decision to take a different route and make use of a wiser strategy. Taking to the air, Tempest leapt into the canopy finally breaking through the upper umbrella of branches. Struggling to keep his balance on the unsteady canopy of trees while not losing his momentum, Tempest quickly regained his bearing and made for the final goal, without trees or other obstacles in his path.

"What?" Sonic looked up, into the trees. "Is he crazy?! You can't run up there! Why would…? O… of course!"

Knowing he'd never make it to a similar position above the trees by himself, and not sure if he'd really want to, Sonic took a deep breath and finally took the race seriously. If the course had been straight then he'd never have worried, but given the terrain… it was _remotely_ _possible_ he could lose. Smashing through the forest now, too quickly to dodge most obstacles by any safe margin, the blue hedgehog finally crashed through into the open. Along his sides and arms cuts from rocks and sticks had broken the skin, and scratches marred his face and side. Still, possessed by his own inertia, Sonic simply kept going forward, and, catching sight of the final goalpost, jumped.

Sonic's body landed at the feet of his friends.

Unconscious.

"This blue bag of entrails was going so fast he couldn't stop in time." Tempest looked down at the body he had just brought back, hair shielding his eyes and expression from view. From his voice alone, he sounded far more impressed than bitter about losing. "Skidded for at least fifty feet. He'll live, though. …Pity."

"He won, didn't he?" Tails stated, as if reading Tempest's face. "I told you that was a stupid bet to make."

"It was foolishness on my part." Tempest walked past him, to the Ring Pool. "But he was faster than I. …and I will not let such a worthy Prey die in a ditch dug by his own feet. He has bested me, but I know of another capable of defeating him."

"Who?" Tails asked, before looking over to Sonic's unconscious body. "Faster than Sonic?"

Only Shadow came to mind.

"You, of course…." Tempest relaxed against a tree. "In the fullness of time, I am confident you will outpace him… I'm not leaving 'till I see that day come to pass."

* * *

Robotnick's index finger tapped at the edge of the armrest attached to his massive floating chair. The doctor was not a physically active man. He never had been and never would be. Second after second, he tapped his finger, growing steadily more impatient and angry. Under his gaze, Snively cowered, flanked by two of the larger than normal Red colored Combots that made up the Lord of Robotropolis' Personal Guard. Then, slowly, Robotnick stopped tapping his finger, and drew his hands together in front of him.

"S… sir?" Snively finally worked up the courage to ask. "I… I can explain…"

"I think the evidence speaks for itself," Robotnick inclined his head and looked to the right at a large monitor. "Let me see it again."

The monitor flashed, and switched to a recording from one of the many SpyEye surveillance bots located throughout the city. It showed a section of the city little more than rubble and dust, obviously one of the two sections that had been leveled over the years by earthquake, battle, nuclear attack or some combination thereof. The view zoomed in on a small convoy of hover transports, little more than enclosed floating boxes tethered to a larger lead transport and escorted by several flying robots.

"S… sir…" Snively started to say.

Robotnick held up his hand, motioning for silence.

Suddenly, on the screen, there was a small flash from the window of a blasted and burned out building. Then two more. The view switched to another SpyEye at a different angle, and focused on three small plumes of smoke. Focusing again, it was easy to see the three missiles creating the smoke: they were black in color, with white tips, and wire guided. Zooming out, the SpyEye caught the next moment in perfect detail. Two missiles airbursted within a formation of the flying badnicks, decimating it completely, while the third slammed into the lead transport, taking out its engines.

"Sir, I…" Snively started up again, but it was obvious that his master wasn't interested in listening. So he endured it silently, nervously shifting his balance from one foot to the other. On the screen, he saw the transport train sputter and descend, trailing fumes, finally crashing into the rim of a small rubble strewn crater.

The view switched again, and then once more.

He saw himself crawl out of what was left of the lead transport, wielding a pistol with weak arms. Several other escorting Swatbots and two Combots also made their escape, and Snively saw himself directing them to take defensive positions behind nearby defilade – the remains of the transport and the upward curl of the crater's rim. The largely mindless bots did as ordered, and took their positions. The Swatbots fired with their underpowered arm mounted bolters, while the two Combots on escort duty took aim with their rifles.

The camera shifted once more, this time showing who had attacked the convoy. A number of mobians, four in all, came out from under cover, and started to slowly advance on the stranded convoy. Sporadic fire shot back and forth between the two positions, turning into a protracted firefight. Then, without warning, something fast and blue was caught at the edge of one of the cameras. The view switched to another SpeEye at another angle, recording the blur, and then to another, and then to the one before, focusing on the two now-immobile cabooses that the convoy had been delivering.

A second later, their sides exploded. Allowing a gang of newly freed and less than amiable mobians to pour out. Snively saw himself point in that direction; yell something at the Swatbots, and…

"Sir, I can explain…" He pleaded.

And then he… ran.

"No need to explain." Robotnick finally answered, still watching the monitor. A SpyEye zoomed in on him, and Snively saw himself running from the battlefield with his two Combot escorts. He still had his pistol, clenched close to his chest, and was heaving as he stumbled through the remains of that part of the city. Back at the actual fight, the Swatbots stumbled around sans leadership, and they were quickly overrun.

Robotnick went back to tapping his finger against the armrest.

"No, Snively… there is no need to explain," he said again. "None at all."

"Sir! I feared for my life…" Snively quickly realized that wasn't a very good excuse in Robotnick's eyes. "If I had stayed, I would've been killed! Reinforcements…"

On the screen, a number of flying figures descended, and fired on the fleeing mobians. The blue blur escorted them as they ran, and the four guerilla fighters from before provided cover fire for their retreat. After two were shot, and probably killed, the other two fled into the ruins.

"It was too late!" Snively said, voice trembling. "Too late! There was no way to hold that position, sir! Metal arrived too late!"

"Is that so?" Robotnick asked, and Snively realized just how angry the Lord of Robotropolis was. When he acted calm, and asked questions, Robotnick was usually incredibly angry. When he was raging and storming around, he was his normal self.

"Metal," Robotnick addressed the blue chrome hedgehog-model robot quietly standing in the corner of the vast room. "You had a full squad of E-1002 sniper units on the way. Do you think the position should have been abandoned before you got there?"

Metal Sonic said one word.

"No."

"Why is that, Metal?"

"The two Combots would have delayed them for several seconds. Regroup and take to higher ground until help arrives," the robot explained in monotone.

Robotnick slowly nodded his head. He motioned for the Red Combots to bring Snively to him as his hoverchair lowered closer to the ground. The tiny overlander put up a weak struggle, but the Combots swiftly grabbed him by his arms, lifted him off the ground, and stepped forward. When they got close, Robotnick pushed himself off his chair, and stood before them.

"Snively…" he said, and smiled broadly. The small man cringed, as Robotnick gently put his massive hand on his quasi-nephew's brow. For a second, Snively imagined that either his head would be crushed like a grape, or that he'd be roboticized on the spot. Then, Robotnick's hand trailed down the side of his face, and settled on his left shoulder. It seemed reassuring, for all of a second, before white-hot pain tore into Snively's body. He screamed, long and loud, for what seemed like minutes.

He fell forward, grasping his shoulder and upper left arm.

Through a daze of pain and tears, he tore away the sleeve and saw mottled gray where once flesh had been. Feeling it, the texture was rough and rock like… and he couldn't move his arm! He couldn't even feel it! This was what roboticization did to overlanders – it was not designed to work on them, and instead had a petrifying effect. Snively curled into a little ball on the floor, sobbing.

"I'm reassigning you." Robotnick stood above him, watching the display without emotion. "Metal will now handle Security, and you will be in charge of new construction and industrial procurement. It seems to have been a mistake to put you into a position where you might see combat. Now. Promise me you'll work hard in your new station."

Snively groaned painfully, and the big man nudged the smaller with his foot. "Promise me, Snively. Swear to it!"

"I… i…" Snively choked through clenched teeth. "I promise! I promise, sir!"

"Good. You've got a good head on your shoulders, Snively. I'd hate to lose you." The 'good doctor' walked past the two Red Combots, and motioned for them to picked Snively up again and take him with them. "Now… let's go have a look at that shoulder…"

Starting with a base rumble, Robotnick laughed long and loud.

* * *

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**--Notes Chapter 1--**

**Truth be told**, I've never been that happy with the first two chapters of COA:ACO. I'll repeat this again in the notes for the next chapter, and explain more why then.

Suffice to say, the root of the problem lies in the original story adaptation that COA developed out of. In the first and now second drafts, I wrote out as many of the OC elements as I could. This makes Chapter 1 much more bearable for me, though some of the backstory and foretelling seems a bit forced at points. It is also notable for basically the only first person narrative I've ever really used, despite about a million collective written words stretched out over a half dozen fics.

Lastly, let me elaborate a bit on the use of continuity here. The comic book continuity (along with SatAM) comes off a bit strong in this chapter, but it quickly becomes subsumed by game based canon once things pick up and the actual plotlines start running. The following "games" are used in ACO's upcoming chapters and storyline:

Sonic Adventure 2

Sonic Riders

Sonic Rivals

Sonic 06/Next Gen

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Important games that have occurred in the continuity already (overriding similar events in the comic or Sonic X canon) include:  
Sonic 1, 2, 3 (and Knuckles)

Sonic Adventure 1

Tails Adventure

Shadow the Hedgehog (the game)

* * *


	5. Best Trip Ever i

**"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid."**

**- Friedrich Nietzsche**

* * *

Casino Night glittered like an artificial lake surrounded by a black sea. Spinning signs, arcs of neon and giant pinwheels decorated the sky, and though only a fraction the size of Robotropolis, its energy requirements were no less than half that of the industrial hub of Mobius. An entourage of hover cars moved slowly down the streets… streets crowded by prostitutes, and thick with the sight of mobians stumbling around half alive, half high.

A sign just up ahead read: "Wonderland"

Shadow sneered at the reference, remembering the story Maria had shared with him so long ago. Turning away from the shaded window, Shadow crossed his arms in silent vexation. Casino Night was a hellhole - a festering boil on the face of the planet. Over a year ago, Robotnick had lost control of the city, and many of its inhabitants had been dereboticized. However, without homes to return to, or any meaningful work to perform, many of the newly freed mobians had simply hung around. In weeks, the city had been divided among several factions.

The three cars slowed to a stop in a paved parking lot near several others. High above, on rooftops and balconies, armed mobians watched and waited. The door to the second car opened, and Shadow stepped out, flanked by four white-paint model Combots marked as 'his' by the thick black stripe on their right arms. That little human rat, Snively, had once jokingly referred to them as 'Stormtroopers,' and apparently Robotnick himself had been sufficiently amused to the point of calling them that himself. Shadow watched, dispassionate, as four more 'Stormtrooper' model Combots exited their vehicles, and then the three that had been driving the hover cars.

"Get it," Shadow said, and pointed with his thumb to the car he'd just left. Two Stormtroopers quickly reached in, and took out two black briefcases. Without another word, Shadow walked towards the looming neon palace that was the "Wonderland Casino." Five of the Combots knew beforehand to stay behind and take up positions around the vehicles, while the rest (including the two with the briefcases), followed their leader inside.

They passed by two burly mobian rabbits, both of them the size of Shadow's Combot escorts, dressed smartly in a blue tuxedo with black tie. The two bouncers looked back, eyes hidden beneath the shadowed embrace of matching blue fedora hats. Inside the Casino, a main hall two stories high instantly caught one's attention. Wooden doors opened and closed, and animals came and went, carrying chips to play the games, drinks to inebriate the gamers, and trinkets to sell to them once they were drunk. Or stoned.

Shadow kept walking.

In the middle of the main hall, he stopped in front of another mobian rabbit, this one a thin nervous looking creature. At the black hedgehog's approach, he held out his hand and smiled thinly. "Clarence Domu at your service, Mr. Shadow. We've been waiting for you. Would you care for a drink or the use of any of our facilities…?"

Shadow just stared at him, and narrowed his eyes.

"I… I suppose not." The rabbit withdrew his hand and held it close; afraid it'd be snapped off if it stuck out for much longer. "Perhaps, after our business is concluded? This way, gentlemen."

Shadow followed the rabbit out of the main hall, past a large entirely glass wall that looked down at another room with row after row of slot machines. In that same room, a sunken pit had what seemed to be a wrestling match between two female felines, in what looked like mud, while crowds of animals cheered them on. The black hedgehog felt disgust rise up from within him, but pushed it down.

The entourage reached a large bulk elevator, and entered it. Domu pressed a series of buttons, and the elevator rose at a fair clip. The seconds slipped silently by, until the elevator finally reached the top floor and opened. Stepping out, Shadow saw a glass ceiling high above, and a small grove of trees growing in doors. Small birds flew back and forth amid them, chirping and singing. The rabbit, Domu, led them to the end of the room, past a stream that ran under a small wooden bridge, and up to a large desk.

Behind that desk, an entirely too obese rabbit hid his girth. He was white furred, with a few mottled gray spots, but both his ears were up and alert. Four more large mobian rabbit guards stood behind him, and Shadow's keen eyes picked up four more to both his left and right, behind the groves of orange trees.

"You must be 'Shadow.'" The fat rabbit scratched his lower lip. "My name is Armin Tweed. I am the proprietor of the 'Wonderland Casino' and its affiliates. I believe you have something for me."

Shadow held up his index finger, and motioned the two briefcase-carrying 'Stormtrooper' Combots forward. The robots did as silently commanded, and put the black cases on Tweed's desk. Unlocking and then opening them, they let out a faint glow, reflecting the overhead lights. Tweed smiled broadly, greedily, and reached out to the closest opened briefcase, cupping twin handfuls of its contents.

"Beautiful…" He whispered, holding up the sparkling diamonds to the light. "Beautiful!"

Putting the handfuls back, he went to the next case, and plucked out a gold bar. Holding it between his hands, he half heartedly tried to bend it, and then held it too up to the light, letting the rays play off its perfect surface.

"Superb…" he whispered reverently. Putting the gold back in the briefcase, Tweed gave Shadow a still-broad smile. It reminded the hedgehog of Robotnick.

"You have your payment," Shadow spoke, finally. "Where is the Emerald?"

Tweed chuckled, and closed the briefcases on his desk. Two of his bodyguards stepped forward, took a case in hand, and stepped back. For a few tense seconds there was no answer, and then the large rabbit leaned back into his chair.

"It is not here, of course," Tweed explained. "But in a more secure location. Guarded by my most loyal of men… so I assure you it is safe."

Shadow tensed.

"But…" Tweed continued. "Nothing and no one can be too safe here in Casino Night. Ever since your master left, and the city was divided up, it has been difficult to maintain any sort of… order."

"What do you want, Tweed?" Shadow was scowling now. He clenched and unclenched his fists.

"What do I want?" Tweed sighed and held out his arm. Domu briskly ran to his side, and helped the much larger mobian out of his seat before handing him a wooden cane. Tweed took it, and slowly walked over and past where Shadow stood, before stopping at one of the orange trees. Silhouetted against him, the glitter and gleam of Casino Night seemed out of place.

"What I want, Mr. Shadow… is nothing less than Casino Night." Tweed plucked a ripe orange from one of the tree's branches. "The whole Zone."

Shadow turned his head slightly. "Oh?"

"Yes," Tweed confirmed, simply. "I want it all. Casino Night… is more than gambling, Mr. Shadow. I am sure you know this. It is… drugs, prostitution, and smuggling… To have Casino Night, I need to control these things. These things that are the life blood of this city."

Shadow wasn't pleased by this sudden turn of events. The thought crossed his mind of throwing the fat mobian off the roof to plummet to his death, and then burn down his festering boil of a business, but the black hedgehog reigned in his anger and his impulsive nature. What was important was the Chaos Emerald. He knew Tweed wasn't lying – it was stashed away somewhere, and Shadow would never find out where by killing him.

"What do you want?" Shadow asked again.

"My family… before we were roboticized, of course… were simple farmers, Mr. Shadow." Tweed slowly peeled the orange, and walked back to his seat with the awkward aid of his wooden walking cane. He sat down with a contented grunt. "One might say we do not have the experience in certain fields to edge out all of our competition. Nor do we necessarily have the resources to rid ourselves of this competition through physical force. But now… we will have your talents at our disposal, Mr. Shadow."

"Me?" The hedgehog asked, somewhat amused. "You want me to help you?"

"I want you to help yourself!" Tweed beamed. "Because if you do not, you will return to Robotropolis empty handed."

Shadow smirked. "What do you need done?"

"Two things, Mr. Shadow." Tweed bit into a slice of the orange, and chewed it. "The Aracelia Family. They control most of the supply of Ginger and other drugs into and out of the city. Their Boss is Venitio Aracelia, and his son is Carlito Aracelia. I would like both of them to be killed, Mr. Shadow."

The black hedgehog nodded. "Done."

"That is not all." Tweed continued. "There is a matter of one other mobian I need taken care of: Xao Fang. He runs the House of Fang on the other side of the city. I will also require that he is taken care of… most finally. Is that understood, Mr. Shadow?"

"Of course."

"Then, once that business is done, you will have your Chaos Emerald to take back to Robotropolis. Mr. Domu will show you to our finest penthouse room where you and your… associates may stay. Additional information will be available there in two manila envelopes."

"This way, if you please." Domu walked past Shadow. The hedgehog pivoted and made as if to follow, but paused to look over his shoulder at Tweed.

"I will do this…" He said, calmly. "But do not expect a second chance, Mr. Tweed. It would not be… that inconvenient for my master to take back what was once his."

Tweed's brow creased in quiet consternation, and Shadow took his leave. Deep inside, despite his calm exterior, the black hedgehog was seething. This petty power gaming… this corrupt world… it was the very same that had destroyed the only sweet thing he had ever known. In a hundred years, nothing at all had changed. In a way, he was thankful for the encounter, because it had proven yet again that Mobius was not worthy of being saved. Let these fools play their pointless games.

In the end, Mobius would burn…

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER TWO:_

**Best Trip Ever (The World Between Me and I)**

* * *

Lara could admit it: she had been scared; panicked even… at first.

Now, greeting a fresh morning full of possibilities, she found little trace of doubt or fear. In fact, what had seemed like such a gloomy prospect – being trapped even further in the past – seemed more like a vacation. Yes, there was the trouble of actually getting back, but that was in the best hands imaginable. In the meantime, she was free to relax and not disturb the time space continuum.

The past wasn't even that bad, really, aside from the war. There were no responsibilities or assignments to look to, no Awakened Devourer or Shadow Jihad to worry about, not even a pesky robot girl to show her up. For her, if no one else, this point in time was far safer than her own. The emerald Miles had given her was still functioning, still augmenting her natural chaos powers, and while she missed the sense of companionship it normally also brought with it, she was also beginning to appreciate a little actual solitude. It made being back in contact with him; reestablishing their soul link (as she liked to think of it) all the more empowering and affirmative.

Being at this time also gave her a chance to observe a point in Miles' life that he preferred not to talk about. Miles rarely talked about the war – the one against Robotnick – or his old comrades in the Freedom Fighters. Lara had met them, and read about them in school, but Miles had known them like family. It was terrible that he had put that part of his life aside, despite his deep affection and feelings of friendship towards those he loved. Then there was Tempest, who she had seen for the first time the other day. The relationship there was similar, but different. When he talked about his time learning the nature of the kitsune, the memories were clouded by a mixture of nostalgia and betrayal.

All due to their ally; the one behind Tempest's trip south.

Now was the perfect opportunity to see those events that had changed the world, and her destiny, if only through him. That said there were some problems: she had no place to stay, for one, and she also happened to be the only echidna in the entire city of Knothole. Clouding the perceptions of others didn't come as naturally to her as it did Fiona; she wasn't great at it, and she couldn't do it when asleep or anything like that. One slip up and there'd be a real mess! A safer alternative was required, along with some means of doing more than living off the land. She still needed food and a roof over her head, chaos powers or not.

Getting money in general wouldn't be hard, with her abilities, but getting money in a way that wouldn't alert anyone to her presence or mess up the future somehow was far more difficult. Thinking it over the night before, she had taken a quick trip to one of the makeshift Knothole gambling houses. Games of chance were always immensely popular, and wherever Mobians and currency could be found, someone would be organizing a way to bet on something. Even the echidna were not immune, and while there was nothing in Knothole to compare with the great casinos of Casino Night (or Casinopolis as the echidna called it) or Marble Garden, there were plenty ready to lose their money to a sleight of hand or two.

Miles frowned on gambling himself, though he made enough use of it that any protestations seemed dubious. Robotnick often built gambling centers of his own, where the odds were heavily staked in his favor, and the losers became victims of roboticization. Typically, the more dangerous and risky the bet, the more Mobians flocked to it. Miles, or Sonic, or even both, often crashed these places, making off with the Eggman's ill gotten gains.

Lara made no secret of her love for games of chance. The risk did add to the fun, and she even played fair and lost almost as much as she won that night. Making the money without resorting to cheating or using her powers made the rewards all the better! Money, and a little persuasion, got her a nice room near the Old Town and the Freedom Fighter residences. After that… came the disguise.

Echidna facial structure, not to mention their dreadlocks, made it difficult to hide as some other Mobian breed. Luckily, a certain amount of body modification was within her limits, and she took her time styling her dreads back and slightly upwards, making it look like they curled up cutely just above her shoulders. Next came the violet colored hair dye. She'd never bothered with full body treatment before, but she'd never heard of a red hedgehog, so violet would have to do. Lastly, she had to style her hair just right to cover a distinct lack of hedgehog-type ears. The end result wasn't bad. She did look like a hedgie, and given how chock full of that breed the city was, she was sure to be able to blend in.

Last but not least came an identity card. Knothole's population included a good many refugees, and every one had to be screened to make sure they were free of cybernetics or tracking devices. So Lara spent the morning sitting through customs with about a hundred other refugees getting checked for bugs (be they electronic, pathological, or just lice). The careful application of Chaos powers assured that her blood test came back as normal, and definitely not echidna, and that her interview went as planned. Four hours and one clean bill of health later, Lara had received a laminated identity card confirming that she could enter Knothole. She hadn't felt the need to mention that she'd already been in the city and gotten lodging beforehand, and that no one had actually asked to see proof of ID.

Now standing in her room, Lara crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at the table. A smattering of items had her full attention.

"ID card…" she nodded her head. "Money…" she nodded her head again at the clips of mobian credits she had won the other night. "Tour Guide…" A small booklet was in the center of it all. On the front, a smiling rabbit woman stood in front of a hut with a camera in her hand. 'Knothole: Shopping, Security and Sightseeing Guide,' it declared in bold print.

"Vacation Time!"

* * *

Morning's light streamed in through the window, with promises of a new and fruitful day. Every morning promised a future free of terror, free of the scourge of roboticization and tyranny that had hung over it for so many years. Every morning Sally Acorn saw was an affirmation of life, and of the unquenchable desire for freedom and life all living creatures shared. Though she was not actually a morning person, Sally appreciated the symbolism of the moment, even through tired eyes and dulled senses.

She awoke slowly, remembering the race that had happened the day before, and Sonic being carried to the infirmary. He was suffering a mild concussion; it was nothing serious, and the medical staff had assured her that he'd be up and about later today. Likely stirring up trouble gloating over Tempest, too… a situation she, for one, intended to prevent.

"Another day…" Sally threw on a robe, and went to the bathroom to wash her face. A blast of cold water was just what she needed to regain her wits this early in the day. "Hopefully not as… eventful as the last..."

Looking back into the room, she checked the clock by the side of her bed, she saw the time: 8:30 AM. Good. She'd have plenty of time to avert any possible trouble. Throwing her vest over her shoulders, and putting on her boots, she headed out to check on Sonic and Rotor, but, soon after opening her door, she saw two figures on the far side of the Ring Pool through her window. Curious she walked outside and over to take a look.

Tempest and Tails.

The latter of the two was doing push ups along a narrow plank suspended over the Pool, and the former seemed engrossed in his one-armed chin-ups against a nearby tree, whose branches bent slightly with the weight. Tempest, who had decided to stick around after losing his race with Sonic, had obviously not been kidding when he spoke of training the younger Kitsune during his Turan'ha – his 'rutting' phase, as Antoine had put it. She wondered why Tempest was so adamant about staying with Tails (and why he had been sent in the first place). Since, as far as he had described his genealogy, they had no blood relation.

"Well, well, well…" Tempest said, between repetitions. "Boy, do you smell who I smell?"

"Sally," Tails said, concentrating on keeping his balance on the plank, and doing his push ups.

"An Acorn… a child of southern aristocracy… Your bloodline betrays you, but there is something else about it, something less obvious…" Tempest laughed, hanging from the limb of the tree by one arm, dripping with sweat. "Or maybe I imagine things. It's about time you woke up. Catching up on your beauty sleep? I hardly think you much need it."

Sally decided not to wade trough what he'd said to decipher whether it was an insult, compliment, or both. "How long have you kept Tails out here?"

"I woke the pup up at daybreak. He put up quite a fight about it, too. You've been spoiling him…" Tempest continued with his one-armed chin-ups.

"He needs sleep, too." Sally put her hands on her hips. "He **is** a growing boy."

Tempest huffed, accepting the remark. "True. But, I am here to train a warrior, not a little boy. Tails?"

"It's ok!" Tails struggled to say, and smiled at her from where he was still doing his push ups. He was happy. He was actually… happy…

"I'll have plenty of time to do my other work later today." He looked back down, breathing heavily. "It's just… understand that… I'm committed to this."

"Why aren't I comfortable with that thought?" Sally mused. She turned back to Tempest. "Where did you stay last night, by the way?"

"I made Camp in the Forest," Tempest explained, simply. "A hunter makes his own shelter."

"What if it rained?"

"I have survived the fiercest snowstorms on the planet. A little tropical shower is not a concern for me." He dropped to the ground suddenly. "I've been told I'm immune to many of your southern diseases, as well."

His ego was insufferable! It was like talking to Sonic, except more complicated. Sonic was about as obtuse as a straightedge, while Tempest obfuscated without remorse. Not that he outright lied (in fact, everything he had said seemed to be the truth), but he veiled what he was saying. Or maybe it was just his 'old' mobian dialect was different from her 'new' mobian one. Tempest formed his sentences and spoke like her grandfather had.

"Oh?" She smirked. "If your people are so great and invincible, how come you haven't defeated Robotnik?"

"Because we don't care." Tempest twisted his neck slightly and walked over to the Ring Pool. "Why should we?"

"He'll roboticize you! … Everyone!"

"He's just another southern tyrant. Let him wreak chaos down here. No one comes north. Your great grandfather was the last to try and subdue us; and his armies paid the price for their arrogance." Tempest washed his face off in the pool. "We have a saying among my people: When the prey do not fear the hunter; he shall never grow hungry."

"Except Robotnik is the hunter now, and **you** are the prey! We all are! Robotnik and Shadow and the rest are a palpable threat to all life on the planet. He may not have attacked now, but it's only a matter of time until he does. And then there's Mastermind… his motives aren't as clear, but he's no friend of Mobius, I can assure you! You can't just stand on the sidelines and watch all this happen! You can't do nothing!"

"He only seems to be killing our enemies, to me." Tempest yelled over his shoulder, "Tails! We are finished for today. How far did you get?"

"Almost 400," Tails answered.

"Finish up to that rep, then, and you're done for the half day."

"Ok…!" Tails took a deep breath and went back to his push-ups.

"Don't you think you're working him a little too hard?" Sally looked worried. 400 per rep!? That was the sort of obscene workout Knuckles sometimes worked himself up into. Besides, as far as she knew, Tails' strength came from his chaos powers, not from physical bulk.

"And what would **you** know about working too hard, Princess Acorn?" Tempest growled, pointing at her accusingly. "I know what I'm doing!"

"You may not know this… but we've been fighting for our lives, here! Day in and day out!" Sally was starting to really get mad.

"Life is a struggle." Tempest crossed his arms contemptuously. "The strong feast and multiply, the weak are devoured and die."

"Oh, that's it!" Sally took off her vest and threw it to the ground. Walking up to him, she cracked her knuckles. "I'll show you what the we're capable of myself!"

"Really?" Tempest raised a thick eyebrow, apparently amused. "A Warrior among the southern ruling house? Please, then; indulge me in your fantasy."

Sally's foot connected with Tempest's jaw before he could even finish his sentence. The kitsune's head tilted back slightly, and behind them, Tails stopped in his work out. Slowly, Tempest's head came forward, a tiny trickle of blood inching down his lower lip. His tongue crept out and traced the small wound, tasting proof that she had actually struck him. Though he never saw Tails' reaction to what had occurred Tempest anticipated it and spoke, not to Sally but to him.

"Boy. Finish your Reps."

Tails got back on all fours, but kept his eyes on the other two as he finished his 388th push up.

"Surprising…" Tempest's right thumb wiped the blood from his lip. It was gone, and none more flowed to take its place. "Was that it?"

"No."

Sally lunged, but Tempest casually stepped to the side, avoiding the strike. Whipping out another kick, Sally again saw Tempest dodge. Thinking quickly, she snapped her calf back to her thigh and redirected the knee forward, only to be met by Tempest's palm, where the two clashed. Again, Sally tried the jump kick, but Tempest reared back, allowing her foot to pass in front of him, and mess up her balance. Landing badly, Sally immediately kicked backwards, forcing Tempest back to avoid it, then twirled on the ball of her foot to again assault with a flurry of quick jabs. He avoided or blocked them all with apparent ease.

Finally, a blow connected - Sally's fist plowing into Tempest's torso, but, to her surprise, it was as hard as rock, and the fox only smiled. Trying again, she felt something strong wrap around her extended fist. Throwing the other fist, Sally winced as Tempest caught that one, too. Kicking low, for the shins, she only hit rock hard bone. Still grinning, Tempest pushed forward, and Sally fell onto her back, with Tempest above her, still holding both her hands down onto the ground and over her head. Sally struggled, but, with Tempest holding her down with his body against hers, and her arms over her head, she was pinned. Slowly, he lowered his head, and inhaled right behind her left ear.

"I could have your throat in my jaws…" He whispered, and then like she was made of fire, he let go and jumped to his feet.

"I was mistaken." He closed his eyes pivoted so his left shoulder was facing her. "The blood of a hunter may run in your veins after all. …Despite being watered down by your upbringing."

Sally was speechless. Tempest then looked over to Tails, who sat on the plank over the pond, his feet dangling into the water, an odd expression on his face. Odd to everyone except Tempest.

"Princess, I will have to speak to you, sometime… about matters." Tempest walked away from her and to Tails.

She got to her feet, and brushed the grass off her shoulders. "If you want a hut, or even a normal room, just ask."

"I accept your offer." Tempest said just that, took off his belt, and jumped into the Ring Pool. Tails quickly did the same and dove in after him. The water was cold and refreshing, but few mobians would think about swimming in it. They all had, once or twice at least, back when Knothole was a tiny rebel base in the forest, and they were relatively alone. Seeing the two kitsunes, Sally felt a sudden urge… to do the same. To jump in the Ring Pool.

To relive those times and more.

"Ah donne see what Tails sees in 'im…" Bunnie walked out with two towels before Sally had to make a decision on the stray, but tempting, thought. Sally gave her a questioning look – what was she doing here? Bunnie just smirked. "But ah think I know what ya'll do."

"He's a barbarian," Sally scoffed. "Just like Antoine said. I'm going to check on Sonic."

A second later, she left the area in favor of the infirmary.

Bunnie followed close behind.

* * *

"Did… Did I win?"

Typical. He just recovers his consciousness, and the first thing he things of isn't 'am I ok?' 'Is there any permanent damage?' 'Or even 'what happened?' Its 'did I win?'…

"Yeah, yah won, Sugah Hog." Bunnie leaned over to check his pulse. "He brought you back though."

"I suppose he's left, then…" Sonic looked up, a wistful and longing look on his face. Sally was surprised. Here she had thought all along that Sonic disliked Tempest. But all this time, he must've just seen him as competition.

"Damn." Sonic sighed. "I'd really wanted to savor beating him, too!"

"Err…" Sally chuckled nervously. Ok. So maybe he just didn't like Tempest after all. "Just relax, Sonic."

"Oh man, Sal, you should have seen it! He knew he wasn't faster than me, so he took to the trees to make better time. But I cranked it; I mean, I really, mondo cranked it up… Thinking about it now, I probably shouldn't have turned around to taunt him. I'm pretty sure I hit the goalpost… Oh, but man, the look on his face when I flipped him the bird! Priceless!" Sonic's eyes suddenly livened up. "So, what's a wounded hero like me gotta do to get some Chili dogs around here, anyway?"

A creak at the door quickly got Sonic's attention, and he saw Tails walk in. His fur had slightly lightened, too, adopting a golden shade. Tails' coat of fur had never really had a consistent color. It grew darker in the summer and fall turning almost auburn and lighter in the summer and winter, when it became almost blond. This had always struck them as a little weird, because Sonic was always the same shade of blue, and Sally and Bunnie's tones never changed. Kitsune had to be among the few old mobian breeds that retained alternating winter and summer coats.

"Heya, Sonic!" He said with a big smile.

"Hey, Big guy!" Sonic reached out and the two friends clasped hands. "I won!"

"I knew you would. Tempest is fast, but you're much faster. I told him that, but he had to see it for himself I suppose…" Tails shrugged and looked Sonic over. "How do you feel?"

"I've been through a lot worse, you know that. But I'll feel a hell of a lot better when I get some grub!" Sonic emphasized that last part. "I bet they cooked up a celebration feast for us. Rrrright?"

Just then, an attendant came in and practically dumped a plate of steaming chilidogs on the table just out of Sonic's reach. She was easily recognizable by her purple hair and short straw colored fur as one Mina Mongoose. Or 'Nurse' Mina Mongoose. After getting wounded on an attack on an advance party of Combots, she had developed a fascination with medicine. After a few months, she had transferred to small but essential medical corp., that was Doctor Quack's lasting legacy to Knothole. So while the Doctor now traveled, lending his skills to other less well off resistance cells, Knothole was still in capable hands.

"Hey! Way uncool, what's up with that?" Sonic reached for the food, but just couldn't reach it.

"Your body is still recovering. Eat these one at a time. And chew them for once, ok? Doctor's orders." Mina pushed the table and the food closer so Sonic could reach. "They're not going anywhere, and… everyone wants you to get well quickly."

"Gotcha." Sonic took one and ate it on one bite. Mina sighed wistfully and gave Sally an innocent look.

"How'd he get hurt, anyway?" She asked, suspecting something was up.

Sally coughed, hand covering her mouth.

"We were racing and he tripped over these." Tails quickly spoke up, and waved his two namesakes behind the Nurse, tickling her lower back and, startling her. She quickly bopped him on the head with her fist, but the Kitsune seemed not to feel it. Sally laughed at the look on her face, a mixture of shock and enjoyment.

"Don't startle me like that!" Mina drew away from the two frisky tails.

"Sorry." Tails apologized, half sincere. "They have a life of their own."

The mongoose nurse sighed again, and was about to leave when she noticed another thing. "Tails… have you gotten taller?"

"Maybe an inch or two." The fox shrugged. "See ya around, Mina. Thanks for the grub."

"Yeah, thanks!" Sonic said between mouthfuls. Mina smiled at the compliment (mostly Sonic's), and left the way she came. While his hedgehog comrade proceeded to scarf down as always, Tails took a single chilidog, and taking a bite, found it's flavor wanting. There was something missing. The texture was ok… and most of the flavor was good, though it bit a little spicier than his tastes told him… but it just seemed… dry. Not bad, just a bit dry.

"Good save, Tails." Sally was quick to add, "But… you shouldn't get in the habit of lying."

"Yeah. Of course not." Tails rolled his eyes dramatically. "I'm not ten, Sally."

Finishing off his chilidog, the fox grimaced a bit.

"What's wrong, Big Guy?" Sonic asked, licking a bit of chili off his right index finger. "Not hungry?"

"Not really," Tails said, but reached for another. "I'll be right back."

Running out of the old infirmary hut, Tails went back to the Ring Pool with the chilidog. Sniffing the air, he quickly picked up Tempest's scent, and found him behind a tree a few meters into the forest, legs crossed and eyes closed. He had already dried off and carefully combed out his fur, a routine he had told Tails to mimic. Kitsune seemed to be almost assiduous about cleanliness, a strange juxtaposition considering their apparent love of carnage. At the younger fox's approach, he opened his eyes.

"Turo… What is it Tails?"

"I'd like you to have this." He handed Tempest the hotdog, overflowing with chili.

"What is this?" Tempest took the foodstuff, and sniffed it cautiously. "Assorted meats… odd spices… beans? This is sort of like what we feed teething kits at home, before they're fully weaned."

"It's a chilidog. Try it."

Tempest took a tentative bite. He didn't grimace, and ate it slowly. "Not bad… a little dry though. If it was made with fresh meat, it would be better."

"That's what I thought, too…" Tails watched Tempest finish the chilidog. "When will I get to hunt?"

"Ah, now you want to hunt, eh?"

"Yes." Tails growled. "I'm hungry. I need a good lunch after that torture session you put me through this morning."

"You have the scent of that boar from last night. Hunt it."

"By myself?"

Tempest uncrossed his legs and stood up. "Do feel you need help with a puny boar?"

"No… I guess not." Tails looked down. "But I couldn't finish a boar by myself. Fresh meat should not go to waste, didn't you tell me that?"

"That I did, young Turo." Tempest nodded his approval and assent. "And here I thought that had forgotten. Very well…"

The boy was chuckling.

Tempest tilted his head slightly, honestly a bit bemused. "What? Did I say something funny?"

"No." Tails waved his hand dismissively. "Nothing like that. I'm just a bit happy. This probably sounds silly, but I haven't had fun in… what seems like years…"

'Fun?' Tempest wondered, but kept his thoughts to himself. 'What an odd word to use…'

* * *

Tails sniffed the air.

He was near.

Leaping from the ground, into a tree, Tails looked around. He had kept his shoes on, for the moment, though it made it more difficult to move through the forest's branches. Almost at his command, his vision cleared, sharpened, to allow him to search the area for motion. The faintest ruffle of leaves near a bush caught the attention of both his alert eyes and upright ears. Waiting for visible confirmation, Tails crouched low to his branch, keeping his tails low and straight for balance.

Last night, he had watched Tempest hunt. The elder fox had easily caught a fair sized wild boar… plentiful in these woods. He had tracked it, taken to the trees to surprise the animal, and simply dropped down and killed it in two seconds with his bare hands. Tails remembered the crack of the boar's neck, but, oddly, it didn't sicken him as much as he thought it would.

"A Hunter has to eat. You don't hate the bear, because he kills the caribou and salmon," Tempest had said, lifting the kill over his shoulder. "They live to feed the Hunter. They are the Prey. That is their natural role in things."

Tails saw him: the boar. It was pretty good-sized male, and at about 90 pounds it weighed more than he did. Tails' whole body tensed, and he could feel the adrenaline pump through this veins and muscles in anticipation of the strike. And, out there, Tempest was watching… evaluating him. This was his First Kill. Tempest said that he had made his fist kill at age six, long before his own Turan'ha. More than half Tails' age…

The animal was right below him. Looking around. It had a good sense of smell itself, though poor vision, and would soon recognize Tails' own scent, and make a run for it. But for the moment, it was scared and confused. It was now or never…

Leaping down from his perch, the world seemed to slow around him.

In a cloud of dirt and leaves, Tails hit the ground on all fours.

The boar turned its head, tusks at the ready.

Instinct took over. Tails lunged, taking the boar by the thick of its neck.

'Can I do this?'

Tails lifted the boar off the ground, denying it any leverage to escape or use its tusks to slash at him.

'Will I do this?'

The boar let out a wild cry.

'You are a Hunter!' The voice resounded in his head. 'A Hunter has to eat!'

The boar fell to the ground.

'Yes. There's that, _and_…'

It's neck broken.

"A Hunter has to eat…" Tails looked down, his canines bared. The hunt, the kill… it felt good. No, by the Source, it had felt amazing! "And… and…!"

'I've never felt more alive!'

* * *

Lara clapped as one of the folk dancers started to sing while the other danced nearby. Three others played simple instruments in a rapid, catchy melody. Really, she had no idea what the instruments were called, or what the lead dancer was saying, since the song was in some strange language. It was probably an old Mogulian tongue, since the canines were old fashioned like that. Like the language, the costumes were almost comically old, in the style of centuries past, before the canines had formed the original military backbone of the Kingdom of Acorn. They still served in the ceremonial Varangian Royal Guard as Special Forces.

Sadly, by the present, war after war had all but wiped out Mobius' canine population. Her first stop for lunch, then, had to be in Knothole's famous Canine Quarter. Now in its heyday, it was a bustling and vibrant collection of soldiers' barracks and stores catering to men and women on leave. It was also a hot spot for clubs, delis and jazz cafes. It was just a shame that so much of Old Knothole wouldn't survive the war…

Finishing his song, the lead dancer took a step towards her and held out his hand. Laughing, Lara took it, and tried to join in as they danced and people whistled and cheered. If it wouldn't be around much longer, then all the more reason to enjoy it while she could!

* * *

"This is Combot patrol 00457, reporting. No sign of Freedom fighters. No targets identified. Uploading terrain data…"

The robot paused momentarily, its processor power devoted to a single task, before joining its group on the hover transport. Around it, the land widened into a bleak tundra, tree cover all around, and frost and snow on the ground. It was quiet, too quiet, and had the robot any feelings left (at least one akin to apprehension) it would have scanned its memory banks and realized even Combot landings usually stirred up the wildlife; not quieted it.

But the Combot did none of these, and simply stepped onto the transport.

The last act of its short quasi-life, as, from behind, a figure clad in white erupted from the ground, in a cover made by its own hands. Cramped together, shoulder to shoulder in the transport, the normally well-designed Combot's couldn't even raise a weapon in their own defense. The two tailed fox, still half covered in snow, and taller and larger than any the bot had on record, withdrew a small pole, that, with a pop, expanded into long, bladed staff. Several Combots activated their stealth equipment, but given their situation it was a waste of energy.

Without even a war cry, the fox waded in, cut them down with ease.

As the last Combot's body slid in half at the torso amid the mangled bodies of its fellows, the Fox grinned into the robot's dead optics. "Like lambs to the slaughter."

Leaping off the transport, the Kitsune reactivated it, sending the craft off into the air, still trailing broken pieces of its occupants. Finally, with a heave, the fox threw its blade, hitting the transport in midair, creating a satisfying crunch and accompanying explosion, as the blade cut into the fuel tanks.

"I took care of the machine pods they left behind, but this is the fifth intrusion this year." Another fox emerged from the nearby woods. "They grow bold."

"Indeed they do, Chara." The first fox took the hood of its winter styled guille suit off, revealing long red hair and feminine features. "The males should be taking the offensive against these… creatures."

"That is for the Clan Elders and the Ephor Anthals to decide, Mother, not us."

The older female grunted in agreement. The actual decision, in practice, rested more with the former than the latter. Only the Elders made decisions that affected the whole of kitsune society, regardless of Clan affiliation. For a century, the ever shifting ranks of the Elders had decreed that the kitsune were forbidden to officially interfere in southern affairs. The defection of the one tails and the losses in the last war had been devastating and disheartening. If the one-tailed foxes turned against their northern kin, then what use was there in putting stock on other mobians?

Besides, none of the other lost breeds were risking their necks either.

Chara turned her eyes to the sky, searching it carefully. Both Kitsune males and females were proficient warriors, but they each specialized in different aspects of the fight. Males always spearheaded any offensive operations, and male warriors focused on tearing down an enemy's defense. Females were the opposite. They were trained to think and fight defensibly, and by Tradition took charge during any defensive engagement. This was practical in that it allowed them to ensure the safety of home and hearth, and because of the ritual of the Claim.

"Once Torrent's Pup returns from his little Quest..." Chara's mother smiled at the memory of her deceased husband. "Maybe he will finally settle down. I have yet to see any grandchildren from either of you whelps…"

Chara frowned. "Patience, dear mother."

"Well. We may as well head back to the camp." The older female sighed wizenedly, and started towards the cover of the thick woods. "Your discourtesy is hardly surprising, given your youth, Chara. But your pup of a brother should know better. The Family needs an Heir."

"That pup, as you so call him, is the finest warrior and Ephor Anthal of our Clan. He will pick a mate when it suits him, not at your whim." Chara growled, falling in step with her mother. "And he knows my opinion on things. Not that he pays it any heed, mind you."

"He needs a female to reign him in. The boy just doesn't carouse enough with the females of our Clan. If he found one, he'd have a different view of our situation here. He'd be quicker to realize we are better taking some sort of offensive action against these southern 'Cha'tah."

"Relax, Mother." Chara Na'Vidar took her own hood off, and draped it over her shoulder. The guille suit rustled almost inaudibly as she did this, the hand sewn bits of camo and matting crumbling up. "'Whatsoever happens, happens.' As long as we have an enemy to fight, and prey to hunt, we'll be fine. Tempest or no Tempest."

"Chara…?"

"Mother?"

"Does it not seem unwarranted to send an Ephor Anthal all the way south to find some lost kit? They could have sent anyone… a whole party of warriors from the boy's own Clan…"

"It does seem strange, Mother." Chara's breath became a tiny cloud of ice in the cold air of their northern climate. "But the Elders requested it, and you know my brother. Ever eager to test his limits…"

"You are getting rebellious in his absence." The brows on Chara's mother's face creased, and not just from age. "The whole extended family is. Clan Vidar's succession crisis was bad enough last generation. Some speak that history will be soon repeating."

"Aye, 'a litter needs its leader,'" Chara mused, quoting one of the best-known Kitsune phrases. "Faster mother! Let us back to the Camp! This victory today shall be hung over our hearth, and as the day wanes we shall gather the other women and regale them with tales of it! Tonight, we feast!"

* * *

"I am the Hunter,  
My claws wet with blood,  
The tang of victory in my mouth,  
My enemies at my feet,  
His blood is mine to spill,  
His death is my life."

"Good!" Tempest then asked, "And when was the Creed adopted?"

"Year 1504, which would make it the… Era of…."

"Of?"

"Of the… Sharufa, right?"

"Superb, Tails!" Tempest clasped the youngster's shoulder. "Now, on to the Legend of the Cathumantana."

Tempest sat down in front of Tails. It was a cool night, and after Tails' kill, they had spent the next couple hours covering the rudiments of kitsune history, as well as the specific history of Tails' Clan – Turo. The young fox was an excellent listener, and seemed to absorb knowledge readily. When Tempest expressed his surprise at this, Tails had been more than happy to tell him about his training in the sciences, and his numerous projects, past, present and future. Now, with the sky dark, their bellies full, and their kill well gnawed upon, Tempest was ready to bring the day to a close.

"This is one of my favorites, boy, so listen well. One day you will likely see the thing of which I now speak. In the year of 1515, a minor Prophetic Comet crossed the sky, and taking it as an omen, the Clan Turo again attacked the southern settlements near her borders."

"Why?"

"Because they were tilling our soil, defiling our hunting grounds, and heaping upon us dishonor."

"That's what you say all the time!" Tails pointed out. "Wouldn't it be easier to just put up a sign. Like '_Go Away_,' '_No Loitering_,' '_No Solicitations_' or something?"

"**Because**… then the Southerners and our enemies would know where we live and Camp. It is better that the borders are kept vague. Now: back to the story. After sacking the township of Amelius, a strange gem was discovered among the ruins. Small but brilliant, it was taken by the Clan's Ephor Anthal, and your great namesake, Mi El Zhu Na'Turo, who was also, by blood, a son of Clan Vidar. The Elders revered it, and called it a Gem of Chaos, of the first generation of such things, birthed in the fires of the First Age..."

"A Chaos Emerald?"

"Yes… that is the echidna name for them, but an 'Emerald' implies that it is green, and most Gems of Chaos are not..."

Tails made a frown. "You've never mentioned them before."

"Why should it matter?" Tempest asked. "Why this big interest in the Gems of Chaos?"

"Because…" Tails licked his lips, remembering the feeling of power he'd once had. He usually didn't dwell on that much, as used to using Chaos Energy in his machines as he was, but now… he could remember it well, and found himself wanting to feel it again.

"I've worked with them. I've held them. And more!"

"Really?" Tempest pondered this. "Do you know which ones?"

Tails wasn't quite sure what he meant. There were only two sets as far as he knew.

"What do you mean: which ones?"

"There would be several sets of them." Tempest held up all four fingers on one hand. "One for each Age that has drawn to a close. The newer ones would look larger than the old ones."

"About this big?" Tails cupped his hands to demonstrate. "The biggest ones, aside from the new Master Emerald, are about this big."

Tempest looked at the rough size outlined by his student's hands. "That is very large. Those were probably Fourth Generation Gems. Are those around here?"

"No, no…" Tails waved his hand dismissingly. "We don't have the big ones on Mobius. Those are all on the Floating… 'Angel' Island, now. The mainland ones aren't as big. You can usually hold two in each hand, though not so easily."

"Third Generation, then. Still very powerful."

"So how big is a First Generation Gem?"

Tempest measured it out with two fingers, pinching the air to the rough size.

"A few inches. But very brilliant in the reflection of light."

"Hmm…" Tails was obviously thinking about what he'd heard, and correlating and comparing it to what he already knew from past experience. "Interesting…"

"Anyway." Tempest went back to the original topic. "And, this Great Ephor Anthal, Mi El Zhu (who you are named after) took the Gem and decreed it part of his Inheritance. In the eleventh year of his reign as patriarch of Clan Turo, Mi El Zhu had a great contest of artisans and weapon smiths called to his lands, as well as the Council of Elders. The winner of these feats of prowess and wisdom was the legendary sword smith Adem Na'Kalahen, so Mi El Zhu commissioned the crafting of the finest of swords, and the Gem was mounted on the hilt."

"And, of it, the wise men said, 'this gem brings great power, so that no material may pause this blade in mid-strike.' To prove this, each Clan save Turo sent a single captured Mobian, raided from the southlands, and piled them one atop the other. Additionally, between each was placed a plate of the hardest iron. The Ephor Anthal, seeing and facing this challenge, hefted the newly forged blade, and with a single motion cut through all six bodies, and all six plates of armor, as smooth as if they were pure white snow. Mi El Zhu then was said to say, 'It sees not the difference between flesh and iron.'"

Tempest nodded sagely and approvingly, coming to the end of the story. "And so, in blood, the sword was christened, 'Cathumantana.' Which means 'Cuts Flesh and Iron equally,' or the Sword of Flesh and Iron."

"That's terrible!" Tails said, shocked. "They just killed those people just to try out a sword?"

Tempest half shrugged. "It was the Sharufa Period. A lot of that sort of thing happened back then."

"It's still not a…" the younger Kitsune rolled his eyes. He had learned it was pointless arguing certain things with Tempest. "Never mind. Is the Sword still around?"

"The blade is a Holy Relic, currently held at the Shrine to Northern Fire. It is still only wielded by worthy Ephor Anthals of the Clan Turo. I went to a pilgrimage there two years ago. The blade is the most beautiful and well crafted in the land. Truly a sight to behold."

"And where is that… Shrine? At the poles?"

"No.… No one lives at the poles. Your Clan comes from deep in the Tundra. Like mine. The Turo clan is considered the most ancient; possessing the purest blood and greatest warriors of our people… though many in Jel'Arah would dispute that fact. All other Kitsune clans are generally considered an offshoot of the Turo."

"Not the One-Tails, though?"

"No. The one tailed, mundane foxes of Mobius… they were once our adopted kin, but no longer. The One-Tails migrated from the south about two thousand years ago when the Second Flood made survival and hunting down there difficult. So we took them in as fellow hunters and brothers. For centuries, we fought, side by side. Then… well, that comes much later…"

Tempest stood up and smiled amiably. "Let us put out the remains of this fire and return to this Knothole village of yours. I will teach you more tomorrow."

They had snuck into the village. It wasn't really necessary, but Tempest had suggested that Tails always practice his stealth and balance, even when doing mundane activities. No one had seen them, as far as he could tell, and Tails knew the town's surveillance and security systems well enough to find holes in them. It had taken longer than usual, but Tails had gotten back to his dwelling.

Which left his mentor to his own devices.

Tempest looked at the sheets, lying on the edge of the 'bed.' He had never had sheets, and he had lived in one of the coldest climates on the planet. This was probably the same thing his young apprentice slept on. No wonder the body's fur was all matted – Kitsune fur was thick, and an effective cushion on its own. On hard and uneven ground most just used their tails as extra padding. He thought about going back to Tails' hut and demand he sleep on the floor as part of his training…

"Spoiled brat…!" He could easily imagine himself saying. "A warrior doesn't need cloth to keep him warm!"

"But…" Tempest said, to himself. "Tails isn't a warrior yet… so I may as well let him enjoy the comforts he is accustomed to."

Closing the door behind him, Tempest looked around and inside this place he had been given. This hut that Princess had given him. The ceiling was a little too low for his comfort, but it was thick walled… and full of, what his people would call 'premiums.' A clock… closets, and the bed - Tempest suspected it would give way when he sat on it; it was so soft. Back home, though his family was both powerful and proud among his Clan, he had only had what he needed. And his bed had literally been like hardwood, compared to this one.

His father used to say, "The less comfortable you are at home; the more comfortable you shall be out in the wilderness, on your own, surviving. You will learn that, if anything, boy."

"The old man was right…" Tempest felt the bed again. "It's amazing Tails ever gets out of bed at all. No wonder I had to practically drag him out of it this morning..."

Leaning back, and propping his feet up on the edge of the bed, for it was smaller than he was, Tempest relaxed, and fell asleep. Tomorrow would be a good day. He still wasn't sure why the Elders had asked him, specifically, to take up this Quest… but it was proving interesting at least. The boy was skilled in many ways already.

Tomorrow… he could afford to up the ante a little.

* * *

Lara fell face first into her queen sized bed, right between the red bag full of clothes, and the blue one full of souvenirs. Pushing her face deep into the sheets and then looking out of the corner of her eye at the time, displayed on a digital clock, she groaned. After the night's club hopping, she'd have to take it easy tomorrow. Maybe check out the old castle fortress, or the original Freedom Fighter headquarters!

Rolling over onto her back, she let out a long sigh.

This was shaping up to be her best trip into the past _ever_!

* * *


	6. Best Trip Ever ii

* * *

Sally hit the alarm on her clock. A thin and intermittent line of pale red light came from her window to the east. It seemed weak and meager, nothing like the strong ray of sunshine she was used to. Pulling the covers over her head and curling into a comfortable little ball, she purred contently. … Gods of Mobius, it was early! Thinking about it, she again asked herself why she had planned on waking up at such a gods' forsaken hour.

_"And what would YOU know about working too hard, Princess Acorn?"_

Oh yeah…

Conceited, arrogant, self-righteous…! It was a matter of principle to show him up.

Determined, Sally draped her vest over her shoulders and put on her boots before stomping outside. But, walking to the ring pool, she saw only one form, and he was standing, his back to her, looking out over the tree line. Then, from just above the branches, streams of yellow light broke through, as if freed from some prison in the woods, and, slowly, majestically, the sun rose over Knothole amid a bath of reds and oranges, lighting up half the sky.

Tempest never turned to acknowledge her presence.

"You know, Princess… at home, my home… the aurora borealis, the Holy Northern Fire, would set the entire sky aflame… but you don't get them down here, do you? Would you even care if you did, I wonder? You sleep 'till noon; you make your own lights, and bathe in them… You plow over fields of wild grasses, mine deep mountain veins, cut and dam rivers beyond recognition… I do not understand your kind. Nor do I expect understanding in return. From you or any other, here in this southern forest… These Southern Lights are fair, to be true, but they are not mine."

Sally walked up to him, feeling shyer than she had on a long time. Where was Tails? She was expecting him to be here when she showed up. Without the younger Kitsune, it was just he and she, alone, watching the sunrise. Then she remembered that she wanted to get to know Tempest better – needed to know him better. He had taken on the role of Tails' surrogate father, or at least mentor. Plus he could be a great asset to the Freedom Fighters…

"It is beautiful… where's Tails? He'd like this."

"I decided to let him sleep in today." Tempest's fur ruffled in the wild slightly. "He is a growing boy. In his own way."

"Why is it sometimes you act like you hate me, and then the next moment you act halfway civil… "

"Life is full of such quandaries and confusions, Princess Acorn. Do you really want me to answer that question? Do you really want me to choose so quickly between hatred and civility?" Tempest huffed in the cool morning air. "Why are you up so early, anyway?"

"I wanted to see what sort of a training regimen you put Tails through," she lied. Kind of… she was curious.

"I put him through what my father put me through. And what his father did to him. And so on for a thousand generations. It is harsh and difficult, but to hold back on him would be an insult to his Clan, and Family. Besides…" he trailed off, apparently not wanting to elaborate.

"So… you're just going to stand around out here today, or what?"

Tempest hooked a thumb over the thick leather belt wrapped around his waist. "I did have other plans, yes."

He lay down on the grass stretching his right leg, touching his toes and holding the position. Looking down at him only for a second, Sally smirked, and carefully hung her vest on a low tree branch nearby before sitting down on the soft morning grass. Holding her leg out, she stretched, touching her head to her toes easily. She could bet that she was more flexible than he was, and it would be a nice start to the morning to show him up a bit. Seemingly relaxing into that position, she let her head turn in his direction to see his reaction.

He was grinning, pleasantly.

* * *

Tails finally woke up. Looking around his room, he thought back to the night before. He'd… hunted… killed… eaten… For a fraction of a second, it felt wrong. It felt at odds with everything he'd come to accept, everything he thought he was. Then he realized that he felt good. Really good. He felt strong, invigorated, alive! He wasn't hungry, his stomach wasn't cramping, and he was literally bursting with energy!

"Hey!" He pushed back the curtains to the only window in the tiny house. Bright light flooded in, and Tails had to squint his eyes at its sudden and unexpected intensity. "What time is it?"

A glance over to his clock confirmed his suspicions; it was 7:02. Tempest had let him sleep in… maybe to see if he could wake up on time? Was this another test?

Some kind of 'wake up at the crack of dawn' or be ambushed by enemies thing?

No…

Either way, he was late. Getting out of bed, Tails slipped into his shoes, arranged the day's workload, and ran outside. A brisk jog to the Ring Pool took less than a half-minute. Approaching the place, he saw Tempest practicing his blows against a tree, barely glazing the trunk with his fists, but still chipping away bark with each strike. That, however, wasn't what surprised Tails. It was Sally, on the other side of the tree, striking as quickly, expertly in between each of Tempest's blows, as if they were double-teaming some unfortunate enemy.

"…Sally?" Tails called out, loud enough to be heard, but quietly enough not to wake everyone else on Knothole. "What's going on? What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like, boy?" Tempest growled, taking his eyes off the tree. "We're going to see how you fight."

"What? Now?" Tails couldn't help but grin. He already knew more than a little about the pugilistic arts. He'd been fighting for years, and he'd picked up some more formal styles by watching Sally, Bunnie and others. Most of it was only marginally useful. He fought with his chaos powers, and with his tails, and that was a style of combat unique to him and him alone.

As a result, most of what he saw and learned from others was only marginally practical. Still, much of his people's culture was built on the concept of dominance through strength and combat… he wanted to not just know more, he wanted to experience more. It also helped to focus and hone the mind; something he found far more useful.

"No, tomorrow," Tempest replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Do your stretches, then come back, and we'll do what we can for you."

Tails nodded quickly then went off to do his stretches and a quick work out by the pool. Tempest grinned, and then turned to see Sally leaning against the tree. She crossed her arms and gave the younger fox a long look over. "He's gotten a little taller."

Tempest didn't seem to think it remarkable.

"He's was about three fifth through the Turan'ha when I got here," the kitsune explained, but then warned, "The final stretch is the most volatile, however. Which reminds me… you may wish to keep that rabbit female that I saw earlier away from him. He's likely to get very hormonal in the next day or two, and rabbits tend to be the most …effeminate in terms of pheromones. Even if they are Third Race scents. She may not mean it, and neither may you, but I can smell it quite clearly. It will only throw off the boy's concentration."

"How …hormonal?" Sally watched Tails flex his arms. He didn't look that strong, but she knew his chaos powers made up for any pre-existing lack in bulk. Luckily, he wouldn't use his tails in anything except a serious fight. They were simply too dangerous to toss around haphazardly.

"Most males take a mate during the Turan'ha, when the Urge is strongest."

"Did you?"

Tempest's eyes narrowed just a little. "Why do you ask?"

"He looks up to you. It's likely to have an influence on him," Sally pointed out.

Tempest growled slightly. "There was a female… once. You see, among my people, roughly half the males from a Clan take females from outside their Clan as mates and move to their territory. This both keeps the blood fresh, and ensures that no Clan would ever directly make war on another, as they would be fighting their own cousins and brothers to the death. Save the southern One-Tail betrayal, and the… somewhat common blood duels and individual feuds, there has never been warfare between my people. Only with invaders."

"I guess that makes sense." Sally tried to look unconcerned by what she had learned. "So… why didn't you bring her with you? What was she like?"

Tempest growled again. "She was a strange beauty, and a great warrior of the haughty Jel'Arah Clan. Her hair was a vivid red, not unlike yours, and her eyes were forest green when she was at peace, turquoise when she meant to wage war… But I digress. She is not… with me. I was not strong enough to Claim her at the time of my Turan'ha, and by the time I returned from my training, she was already mated. We parted ways soon after. I hear the dowry for her hand was very… impressive."

"I'm sorry," Sally said, and meant it. She could tell he had cared for her, even if things had not worked out. "…Really."

"The Urge clouds the mind anyway," Tempest sneered. "I'm best off without it. And so will the boy."

"You won't get any argument from me," Sally said. "So what do we do when Tails gets this 'urge'?"

"You shall do nothing. **I** will keep him under control, and occupy his mind and body with work. This is a Male situation, to be handled by fellow males, only." Tempest stressed the word 'only.'

"Well, we'll deal with it when it occurs." Sally stressed the word 'we.'

The older Fox only snorted.

"You did," he finally said. "Better than I thought this morning."

But before Sally could respond, he walked away to the woods. "You may want to get something to eat before we train the boy."

"What about you? Don't you want anything? We have plenty of food," she called out as he disappeared into the forest.

"Don't worry, Sally," Tails spoke up, having just finished with his warm up and wandered over. Sensing a momentary break, he retrieved a clipboard with the day's work on it from where it lay against the base of a nearby tree. "He just went to finish off the food from yesterday."

"Then why is he going out into the forest?"

"We went… er…"

"Hunting?" Sally constructed the word. "Why? We have plenty of food!"

Tails suddenly stopped in mid-stretch. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that."

"I don't understand it…" She stalked over to him and looked Tails in the eye. "You haven't gone hunting, have you?"

"Uh… No." Tails lied. "Not yet."

"Well, I don't want you to. Killing some poor animal may be the way he was raised, but you're better than that. I DO NOT want you hunting and killing innocent animals."

"Sure. Ok, Aunt Sally," Tails agreed, and watched her walk back into the village. Then, quietly cracking a grin flanked by fierce canines, murmured to himself. "Though… it's a little too late now…"

Then, with a sigh he took a few minutes to chip away at the day's workload.

When Tempest returned, the training began. He and Sally took turns teaching some of the formal stances and techniques of their respective martial arts. Tempest had explained that just like not every stance was practical in combat; every fighting art was not for every mobian. Some were taller than others, and thus had more reach. Some had longer arms, or legs, or other physiological weakness or strengths. Tempest explained that his personal style was designed to detect and predict those strengths and weaknesses, and defeat them.

The technical mechanics of it meant that Tails took to it like a fish in water.

"Higher, boy!" Tempest raised his open palm above Tails' head. "Strike higher."

Tails leapt, and threw his fist into Tempest's palm, tagging it as hard as he could. Following it with his eyes, Tails swirled, backhanding the hand without hesitation, and lunging again before his feet touched the ground. Tempest's palm then changed direction abruptly, veering left, Tails, however, cut it off with a roundhouse kick, smacking it into the air.

"Very good." Tempest shook his hand (The boy hit with surprising force!). "Now… for the real thing. Princess, if you will."

"Ok, Honey, I want you to fight, and don't worry about hurting me." Sally crouched, her arms up.

"This again…" Tails looked up as Tempest, then back to the Princess. "Ok."

"Don't hold back, boy." Tempest laid his hand on Tails' shoulder, reassuring the young Fox. "She can take care of herself. You know that. And no using your tails, either. No chaos powers."

"Fine, fine," Tails growled. Then his features softened, and he got into a crouch and faced Sally. "Be careful, Aunt Sally. Here I come."

Lunging at her, Sally just barely jumped out of the way before Tails' fist filled the air where she once was. The fox had a small snarl on his lips, not unlike the one she noticed Tempest had when he concentrated on most things. She saw Tails' pupils refocus on her for only a millisecond, before the kitsune boy twirled into a fierce kick to her waist. Bringing down her forearm just in time to block it, she swallowed hard, and threw a quick blow, a light one that, even if it connected, wouldn't hurt him too much, but, to her surprise, Tails batted it out of the way without pause and lunged again for her waist.

"We're not sparring, Princess," Tempest said calmly from the sidelines. "The two of you fight on even ground here. Fight seriously."

Faking another block, Sally thought about what Tempest had said. Abstractly, she knew that Tails wouldn't be using any of his chaos abilities, so she was a little wary to simply go after him. It was hard not to think of him as being handicapped, even though – as Tempest said – it was more like putting the two of them on even footing.

A look at Tails' face was met only by the former's feral smile, and unblinking eyes. Waiting for him to lean into another strike, Sally pushed forward, sending her fist plowing into his face at full force. The fox reeled only slightly from the blow before grabbing the outstretched limb. Her eyes wide, Sally was thrown over Tails' shoulder, and reacting only on instinct, she propped out a hand to catch the fall, and jump back into a fighting stance.

She was promptly met by a blow to the midsection that knocked the wind out of her lungs. Tails, without hesitation, drove his shoulder into her, and still running, slammed her body into a nearby tree. Sally, seeing spots, brought down both elbows into Tails' shoulder blades, and despite feeling like she hit rock; Sally could see him fall to his knees from the impact. Leaping up just before the Kitsune pounced, clipping the bark of the tree right where she once stood, Sally landed with both feet on the fox's back, and feeling the shake of the hit, jumped up and away.

Landing, she looked over her shoulder and saw Tails: crouched on one knee, one hand dug into the soft ground. A snarl escaped his lips, and he rose back to his feet. Slowly, the large ears folded back, and Tails again charged, this time faster than before, launching into a slide kick he had copied from Sonic. Sally dodged, kicking back as she turned around. She hit his tails, but encountered no resistance. Distracted, she left an opening he used to slip up behind her and wrap his arms around hers, lifting her off her feet and tossing her to the ground.

"Enough!" Tempest reached out and took Tails by the back of his neck. The younger fox, for a moment, growled and snarled, but quickly calmed down when he realized his situation.

"Over already?" Tails asked almost innocently. "How'd I do?"

"Very well." Tempest looked from Tails to Sally. "Princess?"

"I'm ok." Sally took a deep breath and winced, still feeling the sting of where Tails had buried his shoulder into her lower rib cage. She'd had some pretty serious practice fights with him in the past, but he'd never really been able to hurt her. Like Sonic and Knuckles, he mostly brawled and relied on his special powers (making his moves rather predictable). Adding a measure of skill to the mix had really thrown her for a loop.

"He learns quickly," she conceded. Had they kept fighting, would he have… beaten her?

"I learned from last time," Tails explained, reminding her of their last mock fight from a year ago, when he had left for Downunda to help fight the Black Arms. "You can put me down now."

"Of course," Tempest let him go, and patted him cheerfully on the back. "You may want to wash off. I'll join you momentarily. We will continue our history lessons afterward."

As Tails ran off, Tempest looked over the other participant in the fight. "I noticed you breathing heavily, Princess."

"I've been through worse," Sally assured him, mostly bluffing. She **had** been through worse, of course. But it was a good thing Tempest had intervened when he did. It wasn't like she healed anywhere near as fast as Sonic or Tails.

"I see you have." Tempest turned to join Tails at the pool. "You fought well, Princess. I trust you shall join us tomorrow, as well?"

"I'll be there," Sally answered quickly.

"Superb. Good day, Princess."

"Uh, thanks…" She winced again as the adrenaline started to wear off. Slowly, Sally made her way back to her hut to lie down. "At least he doesn't think I'm a 'Tah anymore…"

* * *

Robotropolis.

Over the last hundred years, the land where the Great River meets the sea has been a center of culture, the centerpiece of an Empire, and a city of death. With a sheltered harbor and premium location, it was little surprise when the Kingdom of Acorn made the city its crown jewel. After the fall of the Acorn Dynasty, it became Robotropolis – the city named after Robotnick. A city of steel and cable, wire and fuse. It became a city not for mobians, but for tireless robot laborers.

Strife after strife befell the city. Earthquakes shook it to its foundations, explosions gutted its streets and buildings, and battles raged that tore swaths through entire former neighborhoods. After the nuclear strike in 3236, fully half the city was little more than burned out rubble. Few of the old buildings stood, though new ones of concrete and steel clawed up at the sky with vicious tenacity. The Grand Palace survived as well, a modified memorial to the end of Mobian rule and the enduring legacy of the Eggman. Deep inside that edifice, in a large concave room that served as its heart, a conversation was underway between two of the three most important entities in the domain.

"Snively! I've been reading your progress reports..."

"Which ones, Sir?" Snively asked, approaching his master. While the Robotnick that he served was not his 'kindly uncle' from years past, he seemed to have all the negative personality traits that had typified the original. Reclining on a high chair that served as his throne, Robotnick scowled, and held up the papers in question.

Snively smiled weakly. "Oh… those..."

"Well?"

"Probably frost damage..."

"And why do I doubt that?" Robotnik hovered over his nephew. "They were destroyed. All of them. So were the surveillance stations they were sent to set up."

"Sir, none of the units actually reported any activity. It seems highly unlikely that…"

"Maybe next time I should send you along with the patrol to supervise?"

That was a de facto death threat. Snively wound his hands together. "Er… perhaps we simply shouldn't bother with that part of Mobius… for now. Besides, the logistics of supporting an operation there…"

"Do you have any idea the amount of untapped natural resources up there? Going completely unused?!" Robotnik hissed.

"But is exploiting the border region really worth this level of losses? Project Helios may be behind schedule, but it is slowly nearing completion. Maybe if Shadow was to lead a squad or two…" Snively cautiously asked, then stopped, waiting.

"Shadow is needed to collect the Emeralds for Helios." Robotnick's eyes glowed a threatening red, and in a sudden rage, he threw the papers at his assistant. Snively cringed as they hit his face and scattered around his feet. For a second, he thought he was going to be punished further, but the Eggman just leaned back in his great dais, and swiveled slowly in place. The much smaller man was still afraid, but dared to let himself relax a bit. He wasn't going to be punished… but at the same time, how sweet would it have been to ship that filthy black and red hedgehog off to that godforsaken wilderness up north!

Watching Robotnick think, Snively sighed.

This had never been a problem in the past. The north was generally too far out of the way for them to care much about. Most of the southern half of the main continent had infrastructure and, at the very least, roads to support development. There was nothing up north. Getting there was a hassle, establishing a base nearly impossible, and shipping anything you do get your hands on back south was just as unprofitable. It was only now being considered an option because so many of their mines in the southern peninsula had panned out, exhausted by years of over production.

And Project Helios was a resource hungry monster.

If it failed…

Snively wound his hands together, tighter. He wouldn't go back to the Devil's Gulag! Not again! Looking up at his quasi relative, Snively asked, hopefully for the last time, "Sir? What are we going to do?"

"Silence, Snively!" Robotnick began to smile, lips parting to reveal great big toothy jaws. "With a few modifications…"

"Sir?"

"Even a crippled elephant can topple an ant hill…!" A mad glint appeared in his inhuman eyes. "Yes, even incomplete, it should be more than enough…"

* * *

"Are you serious?" Tails asked, knocking the hard wood of the tree with one of his knuckles. "It's too hard. It's like a rock. Even Knux wouldn't try breaking open this thing. Well, maybe he would, but he's a special case."

"We're not leaving here until you crack it." Tempest sat down cross-legged, and leaned back against another tall tree as if getting ready to take a nap. Tails didn't doubt that Tempest wasn't exaggerating.

Tails looked down at his fist. "But I'll break my hand! I can split it with my tails…"

"No chaos powers."

"Why not?" Tails asked, growing a little annoyed by that oft-spoken rule. "Why should I break my hand hitting something I can cut like paper?"

"You'll only hurt your hand if you hold back," Tempest spoke without moving from where he sat, or even looking up. "If you hit it full force like I showed you, you shall feel no pain. If you hold back, your hand probably will be broken, yes."

"How about … we do this tomorrow?"

"Now. You've not yet used your full strength, and you rely far too much on your tails and this chaos energy of yours." Tempest leaned back once more, scratching his shoulders against the bark. "I can wait all day."

"How about after we eat? I'm kinda hungry…" Tails seemed more hopeful of this 'compromise.'

"No. Break the tree. Now. Or… does your Clan not breed warriors? Perhaps… you'd be best suited to tending the fields with your Third Race women? Are you kitsune or kitten?"

"I…" Tails snarled, and rearing back, formed a fist. "Fine. Fine."

"Well?" Tempest looked up.

With a swing, Tails' fist clashed with the bark of the tree, and amid a shower of broken bark and splinters, broke through. As the old oak creaked, moaned, and fell to the forest floor; broken and split. Looking down at the hulk, Tails suddenly realized that though the outside of the tree had been hard, the insides had all but rotten away. Then Tails saw his hand: unharmed. He shook it, and chips of wood as fine as sawdust fell away.

"What have you learned from this?"

Tails shot him an angry look. "That you have too much time on your hands. How long did it take to find a tree like this?"

Tempest's had the honesty to look a little chastised. "Point taken. Did you learn anything meaningful from this, though?"

"Well…" Tails thought for a second. "Looks can be deceptive. What appears hard and invincible on the outside, may, in fact, be rotting from within."

"And…?"

"When facing a dangerous foe, strike at full strength or not at all."

"Very good. Anything else?"

Tails smiled. "I can see what you mean about relying on my tails. Not that I totally agree."

Tempest seemed satisfied. "You've progressed superbly, my boy. Come, let's see what Prey the forest has for us today… do you want to lead?"

"Yes," Tails immediately replied. "I picked up the trail of a cougar earlier."

"A feline?" Tempest's nose screwed up in distaste. "They taste terrible. And there's too little meat on them. Wouldn't you prefer a deer?"

"No… I want to Hunt a hunter."

"Do… you…?"

Tempest looked down at the young Kitsune. Tails had seemingly embraced this new aspect of his life… almost a little too readily. Indeed, he seemed to be enjoying the Hunt a little too much, if such a thing were possible. The boy seemed almost bloodthirsty… though, Tempest figured, it was probably just repressed instinct just now bubbling to the surface. Most boys his age had been on Hunts before, though usually not making the actual kill, and eating fresh meat for years. Thinking about it, Tempest determined that it was likely healthier that he gets this out of his system now, rather than later.

He nodded. And Tails immediately gestured for him to follow. Within seconds, the younger fox had the animal's trail. Looking on, Tempest was almost shocked. He suddenly realized that, all this time… throughout the entire training today… Tails had been trailing that animal. Since this morning. He had been leading him from place to place throughout the day while training. Tempest had assumed the boy just liked to wander, to keep moving. But… Tails had been tracking this cougar all this time.

Impressive.

It took only a minute for the Kitsune pair to follow the trail through the undergrowth. And, to Tempest anyway, Tails kept brisk pace the whole time. Almost blending into the scenery, before finally making visual contact with the animal. To Tempest's surprise, Tails paused then, and instead of pouncing he leapt to the round right in front of the mountain lion, his arms crossed.

Landing nearby himself, Tempest watched.

The cougar growled, arching its back, apparently as surprised by Tails' behavior as Tempest was. The fox only smiled, two pairs of sharp canines bared in a snarl that shocked even the veteran fox. What was this boy doing?

"Tails! Finish this game!" Tempest roared, his voice drowning out all other noise in the forest: silencing the world.

"His move." Tails smirked. "Did you know, Tempest, that at one time … I would have feared this animal?"

The cougar began to back away.

"Now… it fears me…" Tails spread his arms, muscles bulging slightly. "Attack me!"

The cougar looked to its left, to the dense foliage.

"ATTACK ME!" Tails roared and jumped to the side, to block any means of escape. "Or… are you afraid? Afraid of me?"

Leaping into cover, the cat felt something hit it from above, slamming the animal into the ground. Jumping back off the cougar, standing between it and the cover of the bushes, Tails stood. Calm. Arms still crossed.

"Tails…" Tempest started to lose his patience. "There is no honor in this, boy. Do not play with what you kill!"

"I claim this kill," Tails spoke, quickly before Tempest could act. Freezing in his tracks, the elder fox could no longer intervene. He had no claim to the animal or the kill by Tradition - Tails had tracked it himself, and cornered it… again, himself. Tempest suddenly realized that this may well have been part of Tails' plan all along.

"You think I enjoy working all day? Slaving over schematics and data, or even doing all those exercises? No! I've waited all day for this moment, when I finally get to cut loose," Tails snarled. "I intend to enjoy it!"

Walking towards the lion, Tails' fur along his neck, his youthful Kitsune mane, bristled.

"For too long… I've been…weak… For too long, I've been _afraid_. Afraid of the gifts God, the Source, or the Maker gave me. It isn't that I've gotten stronger, I'm just tired of holding everything back."

Lunging, Tails seized the cougar by its left paw, easily lifting the creature off the ground. Simply, Tails' fist clenched, and the cougar's paw crushed in his grip. The animal howled, and tried to strike the fox with its other paw, but Tails' effortlessly caught it, and broke it, too.

"Tails. Finish this **now**." Tempest demanded. Tails looked over his shoulder, and his eyes met Tempest's. For a second, he was defiant; then, without pause, Tails' wrapped his arm around the lion's neck, and snapped the head around 180 degrees.

"Happy?" the boy asked, innocently.

Walking over Tails' kill, Tempest let himself tower over the still shorter pupil he had been training. Tails' met his mentor's gaze for only an instant, before a backhand to his face sent the young hunter flying, to the ground. For a second, Tails' eyes glazed over, then, suddenly, tears welled up, and he looked back over to the warrior standing over his kill.

"No matter how you feel at the moment, there is no honor in torture, boy." Tempest pointed down at the cougar's body. "This kill… has disgraced you. _I will not share in it_."

"I'm… I'm sorry… I…" Tails felt more tears come to the surface and hid his face. Reaching up to his head, he winced and ran his hand through his bangs. "I… I… I don't know what… I'm so sorry..."

"Strength without honor… is only tyranny." Tempest, kept his gaze cold, hard. "Why do we Hunt?"

"For food…" Tails answered. "And for honor."

"Honor," Tempest stressed, "Honor! Is this what you meant by _fun_, before?"

Tails saw his hands, white gloves stained crimson. "This… this isn't me… I'm not a killer! God, I…!"

Tempest sighed, and walked over to the young warrior. "Tails…"

"I'm sorry!" Tails looked up, and, without warning, wrapped his arms around Tempest's neck. "I'm sorry! I won't do it again!"

Tempest suddenly remembered this boy, just moments before, had broken the neck of a mountain lion like a twig, but put aside the thought. "I know you're sorry…."

"I need go home…" Tails cried into his shoulder, and quickly took steps back to distance the two of them. "I have work… and… and people are relying on me, and…"

"Alright…" Tempest found himself agreeing with the notion. Walking with Tails back to Knothole, hearing the young kitsune mumbling about his work and trying to preoccupy his mind, Tempest frowned to himself. How had this happened? Everything was going so well. An ancient memory came to the surface, reminding him how important his mission here was. A memory of a kitsune boy near the end of his Turan'ha, walking away from a pile of uneaten corpses, blood dripping from his claws, face, and jaws… Eyes aglow with madness and bloodlust…

"I pushed him too far," Tempest thought, standing next to the door of one of the boy's 'workshops.' He had retreated into it and given no sign of coming back out. "Too damn far. He wasn't ready."

"All my fault…" Tempest felt his hands cover his face. "What have I done?"

They should have sent someone else.

A Father… One of the other Ephor Anthals… someone with actual experience…

'Anyone but me.'

Hopping up into the branches of a tree, Tempest mentally recounted what he had and hadn't done. He's been basing the training regimen and the other lessons on what his father had used on him, filling in a lot of gaps for areas the boy had no experience in. Somewhere along the way, he had miscalculated. He wasn't just filling in gaps, he had to literally tread around an already established pattern of thinking and behavior. Everything had been going so smoothly, he had forgotten that the boy had been reared among non-Kitsune for all his life.

Jumping back down, later that night, Tempest had noticed something else. He had brief run-ins with some of the boy's friends. No one said anything to him, but their faces were plain enough to read. No words needed to be spoken. Even that damn hedgehog said nothing. Their eyes told him… they had noticed the boy's unusual mood, and they blamed him. They had no right to, they were not Clan, not kitsune, but they blamed him.

And they were right.

Damn them.

It was their fault too! Their fault for raising him to care! To be weak! They should have known… But how could they? He had known. Seen the signs - the instinct, the gleam in those eyes…

'Why didn't I see it sooner?' Tempest wondered as he pondered the thought on top of one of a building's roof. Open skies and high places always helped him think clearly. Most kitsune were that way. 'Was he hiding it from me? Or …maybe …I was hiding it from myself?'

"Damn."

"It's not your fault."

He had heard someone open the access door a few feet away, and he identified the voice easily enough.

"Princess." Tempest stood and inclined his head respectfully. "It is my fault. I… should have known. My Father would have. The only thing I don't have from him is his wisdom…"

"You're not your father," she said, softly, not really understanding what he had meant. "Tails… he was just raised differently."

Tempest looked over his shoulder at the forest. "You don't even know what happened out there."

"I know," she answered, taking his hand. "You did all you could to help Tails."

"And it wasn't enough!" Tempest tried to pull back his hand from hers, but it didn't budge. Tempest felt, all too distinctly, her small, warm fingers around his hand. She was not his physical equal; why didn't he want to pull away?

Why wasn't _she_ pulling away?

Was it… pity?

"You wouldn't understand." Tempest growled low in his throat. "You couldn't."

"Only because you don't want me to." She shook her head, looking up at him. "I want to understand. I want to help."

"Why?" He asked. "Why should you care?"

"Because Tails is like a baby brother to me. I'm not blind. I saw how… taunt he's been over the last few months. Maybe not miserable, but he's been unhappy, and nothing I've tried to do has helped him."

"And," she added. "Because when I see something that needs doing, I do it."

Sally looked into his eyes, and Tempest saw hers – bright blue eyes not full of blame and scorn, but understanding. It felt strange.

"I see. That… is a very admirable way to live," he said.

Then, abruptly, her look turned disapproving. "You're thinking about leaving?"

"I am not. A warrior's first true conquest is his fear… and, of course, his apprehension." Tempest felt his heart race. He wasn't… comfortable being this close to her. And he wasn't sure why. There was something strange about her, something that he couldn't quite distinguish from smell alone. He would not feel so… apprehensive otherwise. Was it an…

Attraction?

He mentally laughed. Such a thing was impossible! Not by any stretch of the imagination! He felt only revulsion for her people. And yet, actually having encountered her kind, he found them conforming less and less to what he had expected. He could see her concern, and smell it as well. She was worried he was going to leave. Why did she care? What did she imagine she had to gain?

He was an Ephor Anthal, but he had not told her all that meant...

What did she think to gain?

Against his rapidly dwindling better judgment, Tempest felt himself act, slowly. As his hand fell down her side to her waist, he could feel that her fur was as soft as he had expected it to be, and, most surprisingly, that it didn't bother him in the least. This was so different, this physical contact, from when he had fought her days ago. Then, suddenly, like magnets they flew apart. It was hard to tell who had pushed harder on whom in their sudden separation.

"My apologies, I…" He balled his hand into a fist.

"I don't…" Sally started to say. She blushed deeply, embarrassed and ashamed. What had she been thinking getting that close to him? He didn't care for her – she knew it. It was hard to accept that he didn't like her; barely even respected her… she wanted him to like her. She wanted his respect. She wanted the respect of his people. It was one thing to be disliked by fools and natural enemies, but she knew deep down that Tempest was neither of those. Though… that still didn't explain why she had gotten so close to him.

She loved Sonic. She loved Sonic… but she couldn't help thinking that…

* * *

"Oh, Miles, you never told me things got juicy between them!"

"Don't be asinine," Miles voice chided Lara-Su from across the gulf of time. "Watching those two is a waste of time."

"Doesn't look that way to me."

"Tempest told me many times: 'kitsunes and mobians don't mix' and he was right. The kitsune mentality, their _zeitgeist_, is an anathema to forming any sort of relationship with a non-kitsune. It is an intrinsic part of how they are made."

"What about you?" Lara mentally asked. "You mixed with non-kitsune. Literally."

"I am… that was… a special case."

"You… you sound kind of like you regret it." For a while, Lara received no response. "Miles?"

"Lara. You asked me if I regret the one thing I did that Merlin disapproved of. It galls me, but a part of me does regret it. And another part of me looks back on it with... fondness, I suppose. I can understand where Tempest and Sally were, back then. It isn't just a matter of accepting or rejecting some path in life; we at least wish for the choice. But those two… were predestined to take different paths in life."

* * *

She loved Sonic. She loved Sonic… but she couldn't help thinking that…

Was it wrong? Was it wrong to be attracted to someone she didn't love? Was it wrong that she wanted him to see her like everyone naturally did? Still standing in front of him, both totally silent, Sally crossed her arms over her chest, feeling insecure. It was his fault! He was giving her mixed signals! If he had just hated her, or just liked her, it would've been so much simpler!

"Um…"

"Ah…"

"That was…" she started to say. "I mean…"

Tempest scratched the back of his neck, looking rather foolish. "I don't…"

She blinked. "You don't what?"

"I don't…" Tempest paused, realizing that what he had intended to say was probably the worst possible thing he could. "Don't… know what..."

He didn't really have anything resembling a good continuation for that half sentence. So he said nothing, and looked away and off to the side. Finally, he changed the topic entirely, deciding to ignore it had happened.

"I'm going to remain here until the boy's Turan'ha has passed," Tempest said, and started to walk away. "Then I am to leave and not return. Do not grow accustomed to my presence here. I think everyone will know but relief when I have gone."

"Tempest." Sally took a step towards his retreating form. "You'll get your chance tomorrow… to make everything right again. The only one who can kick you out is me, and I won't…"

And she left without another word. She had, no doubt, thought that he hadn't heard her. But he had. Silently, Tempest walked back to his hut expecting to be alone with his thoughts, but instead he found the last person he'd expect to be there, waiting for him.

"It is being about times you showed up," the other mobian spoke calmly.

"I have nothing to say to you, Keionah." Tempest pushed the small coyote out of his way.

"You will be listening!" Antoine growled and stood between Tempest and his door. "Please… Listen to what I have to tell you."

Tempest paused. "What is it?"

"You must know of the other Clans. The southern ones."

"What about them?"

"They are…" Antoine started to say. "They are being devastated by these wars…"

Tempest's expression softened. "You should never have lain with these Prey. They have weakened you. And now their fate is yours. You have my pity, Keionah…"

"That is not being all!" Antoine said, not finished. "I am the last of Surni'var!"

"What?" Tempest whirled on Antoine, and grabbed him by the neck. "You lie!"

"Eet… eet ees true…" The coyote choked through Tempest's vice like grip. Letting go, the Kitsune fox stumbled back at the news, visibly shaken.

"No…" Tempest said, shaking his head in disbelief. "That can't be…"

"I would not be lying about something this serious." Antoine tenderly felt his throat. "Mon dieu! You needs to be watching your strength…"

"How?" Tempest asked, eyes burning. "How did this happen?"

"Robotnick. Not even tze Great War… eet was just him. He did ruin us!" Antoine made a fist, shaking with anger and determination. "There are… no more… of my kind. I was not sure for a long time, but I have looked… I have traveled, I have asked… no more! There are no more of us! I am tze last…"

"The last of Surni'var…" Tempest still couldn't believe it. He had heard of species being driven to the point of extinction before. Many rare breeds of mobian had been wiped out during the Great War, especially the nomadic plains dwellers, and he knew many others were endangered, especially in the southern region of Downunda. But those were all creatures of the Third Age, and thus less important from a Kitsune perspective. But Surni'var was another Clan of the Second Age – they were the coyote – was it really possible that they were nearly all gone?

"Is there… anything I can do…?" He looked at the doomed mobian. How did he keep going, with such a burden?

"Non. Eet ees being too late for tze Surni'var." Antoine answered to the negative. "But tze others… tze others you would have once called kin… they are all in tze most grave of danger. And, though I know you do not care, so are all tze other mobians on this planet. Will you still stand by, knowing this?"

"What do you want me to do?" Tempest asked. "I am Ephor Anthal… yes: Ephor Anthal… but I cannot take my Clan to war alone. Vidar is neither the largest nor strongest of the Clans. The other Ephor Anthals… They will not all see this as I do."

"How can that be?" Antoine looked down at the sword hung by his hip. "Can they not see that the fall of Surni'var… that it ees only tze beginning?"

Tempest scowled darkly. "You do not understand. The Ephor Anthals are not united. They have not stood united in over a hundred years. Were I to propose a war to… aid the south in their insurrection, I would likely only have the support of Anthal Andras of Clan Dae'th'Ai. Bloodsmythe Na'Kalahen has been calling for a southern war for years, but he would turn it into an exercise in the most terrible savagery. Fa'Rah would oppose any notion supported by Kalahen, and Tandothane Na'Tukaido dislikes me enough to oppose me as well. Jel'Arah is too conservative, and Turo is too large to risk losing their leadership position…"

"Then you can not help?"

"I… I will help. You have my word, I will try." Tempest bowed his head to Antoine, quickly and only once. "I will just… have to be… subtle and find a way."

Somehow…

* * *


	7. Best Trip Ever iii

* * *

"Chosen One!"

The tone was mocking, cruel. "You… are the Chosen One?"

"Who are you?" Tails stood at the edge of a precipice. On one side, a pillar of flame billowed high into the air, on the other… a drop to certain oblivion. The voice was at once everywhere and nowhere, from every angle, and from within. The sky was thick with red clouds, and all creation seared his nose with the sharp smell of sulfur and ash.

"Where am I? What do you want?" Tails let the litany of questions fly from his mouth. "Is this a dream? It has to be a dream!"

"So many questions…"

The sky thundered, and far below the earth shook.

"Do not be so afraid." The voice was still mocking, still biting in its tone. "This is no dream, however. Nor is it … Hell…"

"Hell?" Tails gulped. He took a tentative step closer to the edge, peering down the drop into the black mists below. A sudden gust of wind blew up, carried by a tormented wail of screams. He jerked back, the breath stolen from his lips.

The voice chuckled mirthlessly.

"The Chosen One should not be so easily spooked. This is my world… my beautiful world… do you hear the screams? It is my Chorus. Do you see the corpses piled high? They are my Throne."

"Who… are you?" Tails asked again, growing a fraction bolder. "I want an answer!"

"They called me Chosen One, once…"

"What?" The young kitsune growled. "What did you say?"

"It is a curse, you know. Disguised as a gift." The cruel deep voice rumbled in tune with the tormented planet's earthquakes. "Do not think that when you awake the Nightmare will be over… Miles… When the Great Dawn is upon you, you too shall Awaken and play your cursed role… Chosen One…"

"I don't understand! I…!" Tails suddenly felt the planet erupt from below, and his footing evaporated in an instant. He tried to spin his tails, tried to slow his fall, but some terrible force, greater than gravity's pull, dragged him down… into the mists and the screams…

He landed in soft powered snow.

Far above, white clouds drifted lazily across the blue sky, framed by the snow-covered branches of a forest pine. He inhaled through his nose, and smelled pine leaves, deer, and… scents similar to his own and Tempest's. They were his kin. They were his family. Limbs weak, he forced himself upright, and looked around the serene scene.

"Moma… Papa…" He knew the scent. He didn't know how, but he did. They were…

He faced the south.

"no…" His voice was small, childlike… A face flashed before his eyes, a female's face. Dark orange hair, beautiful blue eyes like glacial ice. But her eyes… something was missing… Jumping to his feet, he ran south. Whirling his tails behind him, Tails picked up speed rapidly. Clean white snow flew away from him, blew all around him. He raced eyes squinted with frozen tears. Then, out of the blue, three shots rang out, and he was paralyzed. Body freezing up, everything became black.

"noo…"

* * *

"I do hope you're been enjoying yourself."

"You know I have!" Lara-Su thought out loud from her perch the roof of one of the Old Town huts. It was close enough for her emerald to make contact with its Master and Maker.

"I went to the Museum of Mobian Antiquities, had lunch in a genuine jazz café, saw the Castle Ruins outside of town and the old Freedom Fighter Headquarters… Oh! And I saw the bell tower, and took a historic tour of the Old Town, and then I spent the rest of the day in the open air market!"

"Sounds like a full day!" Miles exclaimed with very nearly genuine enthusiasm. "Maybe tomorrow you should check out the civic center and the mall. Did you know that, at this time, Knothole had the largest mall on the mainland outside of Casino Night?"

"Really?"

"**And** if you're interested in the night life, all the really wild clubs are in the old Mobotropolis suburbs. Maybe you could visit one this weekend?"

Lara was about to agree, when she realized something. "The weekend is four days from now."

"Yes. It is."

"Can't you… get me back before then…?"

"Actually… no. It looks like I can't."

Lara's mood instantly turned from sunny, to, if not gloomy, a bit shady.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

She could feel Miles' frown, even from across space and time. "The same disturbance that shot you into this point in time is also keeping you here. The other me may have sent you back in time originally, but I don't know… can't know… what my future self has done or will do."

"But you **are** him."

"Exactly."

"But you have an idea of how to bring me back?"

"Oh yes. Yes, I have an idea. Just like your emerald is attuned to the me that exists in a certain point in time, your chaos waveform is attuned to a 'proper' point in the timeline. Returning you to that point is easier than moving you from it, just like how a spring naturally returns to a certain shape."

Lara didn't need everything explained to her. She was no genius, but she could see the problem. "I need to find what's keeping me attuned to this point in time."

"Exactly."

"How do I do that?"

"At the moment… I'm not sure. However, I suspect you aren't the only anomaly in this point in time. Keep an eye out for anything unusual. I will continue looking into things from here."

"Miles…" Lara's thoughts echoed the worry clouding her emotions. "I like it here, but I want to come back. I can't help you here."

"I know, Lara. I'll do everything I can for you."

Lara sat alone on the roof, and a shiver ran down her arms. It wasn't just the cold, either. A wave of emotions coursed into her through the emerald. They felt like Miles' but they were different. These were things she had never felt from him before. It had to have come from…

"_That_ night," Miles said, dispassionately. "After I killed that cougar. …how annoying."

"A nightmare?"

"That night, the Devourer spoke to me. Or maybe, for just a moment, my mind touched his. I was oblivious, of course. The entire experience, though… _this_, and what is to come, almost makes me wish you could change it…change it all…"

Lara could tell he was serious about how it felt. "Really?"

"I suppose. But pain has as much a purpose as pleasure, or so I've come to believe."

Lara didn't disagree, but in her own opinion, one should try and at least minimize pain at all times. Even if it was something to learn from, even if there was a purpose to it, people could learn as much from the carrot as the stick. But what she could feel now…

"You were afraid."

"Terribly."

"But why?" She honestly didn't understand. It was natural to be afraid of something, especially in a nightmare, but that wasn't all she felt. The root of the fear was within.

"Because…" Miles paused, but answered. "Because, deep down, I have always wanted power. In all my life, in adventure after adventure, strength alone has saved the day and protected what I care for. Sonic never won because he was **right**. He won because he was **fast**, and **strong**, and **lucky**. I suppose… you could say that I have always seen power and greatness as the same thing..."

* * *

Sally coughed softly, watching Sonic pace the room. It was one of his more annoying habits – the need to always move some part of his body, especially when he was agitated. Still, she mused, he seemed he taking the situation with Tails… fairly well. Considering he'd held off on jumping Tempest right off the bat, or even verbally insulting him, he had civilized a great deal over the last two years. Of course, as it turned out the blue blur had just been saving all his thoughts up for later. It had been almost an hour since he started, when Sally noticed that Sonic had stopped talking and looked like he was thinking about something instead.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Dunno," Sonic responded. "Ever since this whole thing started, I kinda felt like I've forgotten about something."

"Like what?"

"Sal, if I knew, then I wouldn't have forgotten it."

"Oh right. Well, do you have any clue what it is?"

"Not really. I know it's something important, just can't put my finger on it." Sonic held two fingers up to the side of his face. "And now I've got this crazy feelin' …"

Just then, the door swung open and Sonic and Sally looked toward the doorway to see an angry blue hedgehog standing there, wearing a brown trench coat with a hat under one arm. He was a typical in every other way, the only thing standing out particularly being his sneakers, which were similar to Sonic's, except that the white stripe on his shoes went half way down then looped back around the heel. They were an (expensive) gift from his illegitimate father, Sonic's own Uncle Chuck. He walked into the room and spoke up before either of those present could say anything.

"Well I guess my plea of, 'If you're going to take the car please, please, I beg you please don't forget to pick me up from work' was a little vague."

Sonic stifled a laugh. "Ah. That's what that funky feeling was. What's up, Rush?"

"How did I get home you ask?" Rush asked rhetorically, ignoring his cousin's question. "Well, that's a funny story. After staying on the Angel Island a day and half longer than I should have, I finally came to the conclusion that no one was going to pick me up. But, fortunately there are plenty of planes on the Island, now. Unfortunately, Knothole can't be seen from the air… so guess what: they had to drop me off in the middle of the forest! But no biggie, right? It was only a five HOUR walk home!"

"Walk?" Sally asked. "Why didn't you run?"

Rush had none of Sonic's speed, but he was still fairly fast on his feet.

"Well, that's another funny story. Seems the place they dropped me off at was one of the thickest parts of the forest, making it hard enough to walk, and impossible to run. That is unless of course I wanted to give myself all sorts of cuts and bruises, but I just didn't feel like doing that today." Rush promptly plopped down in a nearby chair, exhausted. "But enough about me! I hope everyone had a nice dinner tonight!"

"Sorry, man." Sonic grinned, and walked over to his Uncle's only son, giving him an apologetic pat on the shoulder. "Things've gotten kinda complicated the last few days."

"I can't believe I forgot!" Sally was more vocal. "I'm really sorry, Rush! Normally I'd have sent Tails to pick you up, but…"

Rush held up a hand and bided her to stop. "Don't worry 'bout it, Sal. What's done is done."

"Well… How did your mission go?" Sally asked calmly, "Well, I hope?"

"Well enough. Knuckles said he'd keep his eye out for any information about this Project Helios thing. But he's still got Dark Legion problems… not to mention Julie-Su problems. **And** he's still keeping an eye out for Mammoth Mogul. He also wanted to assure you that he had both the Master Emerald and the stray Super Emeralds under his 'protection.' I also checked with Remington in Echidnapolis, and told him to keep an eye out for any Robotnick related activity. He told me there hadn't been any in the last four months, but that he would keep in touch if that changed. Hmm…" Rush almost laughed. "Yep. That's pretty much my full report, ma'am."

Sally cupped her chin. "So whatever he's up to, it isn't related to Angel Island."

"Oh, yeah…" Rush snapped his fingers as he remembered one other thing. "Before you ask, the Echidnapolis Council said they would 'think' about sending us aid. Which is code word for 'no.'"

"That's unfortunate," Sally replied, and turned away, frowning. "But not exactly unexpected."

"Yeah, they're about as useless as ever." Rush clapped his hands together excitedly. "So, what's been going on around here? The usual, I assume?"

"Not… quite…" Sally was somewhat reluctant to let Sonic restart his previous tirade on 'Slow Mo uncool foxes,' so she cut him off before he could start up. "Tails is going through some… changes."

"BIG changes," Sonic interrupted.

"BIG uncool changes?" Rush asked.

"Of the most uncool variety."

"So these changes were both big, and not cool?"

"Neither cool nor small."

"Look!" Sally cut in. God she hated it when they did that. "Tails is growing VERY rapidly…"

"Like the Amazing Colossal Man?"

"No." Sally had always disliked Rush's tendency to mention strange references to things she'd never heard of. "He's… ok, ok, it all started when Tempest came a few days ago."

"Who, now?"

"Tempest. He's another Two-Tailed fox from the Northern Tundra."

"Oh." Rush leaned back, enjoying not having to stand up for the first time today. "Another Tails? Neat. Older or younger?"

"Older." Sonic answered, wanting to get back into the conversation. "Much older. I don't think you see where this's going, Rush."

"Suuurrree I do," Rush replied lazily. "Tails has an older bro, or something. Like I said: Neat."

Sally continued: "He tried to take Tails back north."

"What?" Rush almost choked. "What the hell happened?"

"Tempest came down, and tried to take Tails. Antoine (of all mobians) convinced him to race Sonic for it; and he accepted." Sally quickly added. "Because he thought Sonic was 'small and weak.'"

Rush laughed. "That's rich!"

"Well, Sonic won, as you can imagine, but got pretty beat up running through the forest."

"But I WON," Sonic stressed.

"So Tempest stayed here instead of leaving with Tails. To train him," Sally finished. "Basically."

"Uh huh." Rush raised an eyebrow. "Why would Tails need training? I'm guessing we're not talking about Piano lessons, here."

"No…" Sally shook her head. "Tails is going to grow. A lot. You both know he's grown from the little boy he used to be. But this… phase he's going through is going to be something really major. He's already almost as tall as I am, and still growing. It is more than physical, though… that's the problem."

"You can say that again!" Sonic seconded, and took a deep breath in preparation for his Rant Part 2.

"And he's getting sort of… wild." Sally quickly continued. "Tempest and Antoine called it the 'Turan'ha.' It means Rut. Tempest is here to keep Tails from going crazy or doing anything… dangerous… during the process."

"Woah… this is…"

"AND he's doing a half-assed job, too!" Sonic wouldn't let his cousin finish. "Earlier today, Tails came back like he'd seen a ghost! I didn't say nothing, but what the Hell happened out there? Tempest is messing the kid up and I think…!"

"Sonic, I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt." Sally interrupted him again. "You know, this is the first time Tails has been anything but happy around him!"

"Yeah? At what price, Sal?" Sonic shot back. "He's going to turn Tails into a monster! They're killers!"

"Uh… guys…"

"Killers? If they are, so are we! Those chilidogs aren't tofu, you know! That's processed meat, but still meat!"

"Sal, with all due respect, this guy is some serious bad news. We need to keep our eyes on what he's doing with Tails." Sonic crossed his arms. "That's all I'm saying, Sal. Keep an eye on 'im."

"I **know** what's he's been doing, Sonic!"

"How?"

"I was there."

"Wa… What?"

"They were just training." Sally slowly started to calm down. "Sparring… he's teaching Tails important skills, and the history and culture of his people. Don't you see? This is the one thing we were never able to give him. Tails deserves to know who he is and where he comes from! And Tempest is teaching Tails to use his full potential. I, for one, support him in what he's doing. Tails… Tails isn't a baby anymore."

"I know that! So what? We just throw him to the vultures? And… since when did you start spending time with ol' Blood on the Brain? Didn't Antoine tell you to avoid him?"

"Believe it or not, Sonic," Sally said the words with as fierce a tone as any they had heard in recent weeks. "I CAN come and go as I please, and meet who I want. I make it a point to keep my mind open."

"Open to what?" Sonic asked archly. "He doesn't care about Tails! He's just turning him… into Him!"

"Out!" Sally just pointed at the door and closed her eyes. "Go. I've had it with you and… and…"

"Fine. I'm gone! Let's go," Sonic said sharply, and made for the door, not waiting for Rush to follow.

"Uh… woah… I guess I'm leaving, then. Bye, Sally. We'll talk more tomorrow… I guess…" Rush nodded quickly and left, right behind his older cousin.

"Damn," Sally said, finally, before turning off the light and throwing herself onto the bed. Why did he have to be so… closed-minded? Normally Sonic was more… well, he was always competitive, but he wasn't normally so hostile. It had to be because he still thought Tempest was 'taking' Tails away from him.

Which… maybe he was. She groaned, still hurting from where Tails had hit her in their last 'play fight.' She shouldn't have thrown Sonic out. She shouldn't have done anything today! She'd have been better off staying in bed! Holding her pillow tightly, she silently cursed.

Outside, Sonic and Rush saw the light go out.

"Something's wrong with her." Sonic growled. "And I'd bet a year's worth of chilidogs _and rings_ it's got to do with Tempest."

"The girl is an island unto herself. Well, I don't know 'bout you, but I'm gonna get some well deserved shut eye." Rush jovially slapped his cousin's back. Sonic's answering gaze was blank, and Rush only shrugged, before the two parted ways.

* * *

"NO!" Tails jumped out of his bed. "no…"

Checking his wall clock, Tails confirmed the time: 6:02. Without giving it another thought, the fox left his hut and went down to the Ring Pool, fleeting memories of his dream still dancing in the recesses of his mind. A new ring was glowing brightly over the surface, drowning out the normal morning rays. Sitting at the edge and washing his face off in the clear waters, Tails looked into his reflection. The Kitsune who looked back…was he really Tails? Was he really Miles 'Tails' Prower, Freedom Fighter, or was he Miles Se'Prower Na'Turo, Kitsune?

He had changed… so much.

Too much?

Then his face in the pool changed, distorted by the fall of a leaf. Softer features, blue eyes, longer hair, but the same shade… A word almost sprang, unbidden, from his mouth: 'Mother.'

"No."

Tails reached down into the waters, like in his dream, but felt no warmth below; just more cool water - empty. "What does all mean?"

"You're up?" Tempest was behind him. Tails knew it even before the elder had spoken.

"I am." Tails paused. "Ready to Train. Though… just today, I would prefer we stayed here."

"In Knothole?" Tempest asked. "Isn't this the day you normally go out on patrol for her Highness?"

"We both know the answer to that," Tails spoke frankly. "You're taking my place, aren't you?"

"Yes," Tempest said after a second's delay. "How do you feel, Tails?"

"Well…" Tails cracked his neck to the side to flex it. "Well enough. Just…"

"What?"

"Hungry…" Tails said it almost guiltily. Tempest understood why, at least in a general way, and sat down next to his pupil. He handed the boy a small leather pouch. Tails took it, and immediately smelled what it was. Looking inside only confirmed it.

"What's this?" Tails smelled the cured and dried strip of meat. "Jerky?"

"I made some from that boar you… killed." Tempest inclined his head. "Go on. Try a bite. I haven't taught you how to smoke or prepare meats, yet… As a Kitsune male, you'll need to learn a few recipes. Our vixens can be… particular, and quite demanding. I have a few secrets to it I can pass onto you, if you still want them."

Tails licked his lips, and bit into the first slice. It wasn't as good as it had been when it was fresh off the bone, but it satiated him. It calmed the beast that demanded he kill and consume. Chewing slowly, Tails half smiled.

"Thanks," he said, not nearly as proud and defiant as he once had been. "I'd like that."

"Good. Today's training will be difficult, but ultimately rewarding." Tempest watched as Tails ate. He hoped his concern didn't show in his voice. "Today, you will learn to maintain the purity of the mind."

"Purity of the mind?" The younger fox asked, mouth full. "I'm not naturally introspective…"

"Skill in battle and strength are important to victory, but wasted without a clear mind to guide them." Tempest looked up from where he was sitting. "Or don't you believe me?"

"I… I have a purity of mind."

"Remember when you fought the Princess? You would have won, had you been properly focused."

"And she'd probably be dead," Tails pointed out. "I could have killed her."

"Perhaps." Tempest smiled. "Though I wouldn't underestimate her. She's surprised me more than once."

"I'm sure she has." Tails smiled a little. Tempest sighed.

"Today you shall sit where you are. And not move 'till I return from… your patrol."

"…Excuse me?" Tails gawked. "Sit here? All day? Like this?"

"Yes," Tempest said and nodded. "The Test is twofold. One, it will test your mental strength. It takes more discipline to sit here, voluntarily, and not move, than you would learn by fighting the most deadly foe. And… you'll get less hurt."

"Let me guess the other." Tails quickly deduced it. "Two: a test of my honor and conviction. You will leave, and trust in me not to move while you're away. Am I correct?"

"Exactly." Tempest looked over his shoulder. "I do not believe the Princess will be joining us this morning. You will be alone, Tails."

"How will you know if I move?"

"I will see it in your eyes," Tempest spoke without hesitation, "Plus, I know you're a better animal than that. I already trust you, boy; the question is: do you trust yourself?"

* * *

Sonic hated the smell of the place, but he wasn't here for that unique 'garbage dump odor.' Here was here to see his Uncle. His roboticized Uncle. Sir Charles had been both one of the most fortunate and unfortunate of roboticized mobians. One of Robotnick's first victims, he was the mobian most responsible for the development of the roboticizer. He had never stopped blaming himself for the ills it caused, but had tried to atone by working as a spy for the Freedom Fighters.

Years ago, by freak exposure to a Power Ring, Charles had gotten his memory back, if not his body. Since then, despite natural disaster of catastrophic battle, he had worked to make up for what he believed to be past sins. Only recently, he had discovered that a long forgotten tryst two decades ago had produced a son doomed to be abandoned and orphaned by war. He and Rush had never been close, and Sonic had no doubt that the presence of his estranged son was one of the reasons he had left Knothole for his old sanctuary in Robotropolis.

Despite the fact that his secret was no longer just that, the city's overlord had never found Charles. All Robotropolis' systems and security procedures were still tailored to identify and eliminate living creatures and intruders, not existing mechanized threats from within. Based in the vast and uncharted man-made wasteland of the Robotropolis Dump, Charles survived, using whatever resources he could muster to continue the fight, and one day make amends.

The Dump was a constantly shifting maze, but Sonic knew the way.

Up.

Over.

Through!

"Yo Uncle Chuck!" Sonic came to a stop near an old shed, amid a cloud of dust. A second later, a hooded figure emerged from the shed, hand covering his face.

"A freak weather phenomena just came into town." The robot mock coughed on the dust that blew up and away from Sonic's extreme stop. "They're calling it Hurricane Sonic, I hear."

"Yeah," Sonic blew the stuff out of has face. "Oops."

"So, what brings you here, Sonie?"

"I need to talk… with someone sane." Sonic immediately regretted blurting out that last part.

"Oh," Uncle Chuck nodded, and pulled out an old makeshift steel chair from behind the broken hunk of a crashed transport. "Go on."

"Ok…" Sonic took a deep breath. "A while back, this guy came into Knothole looking for Tails. He was a fox just like him, with two tails, and wanted to take the kid back North, because he thought we were too weak and stupid to take care of him, even though we'd… I'D practically raised him since he was a kit! So, then, Ant convinces the guy to race me for him, and I win …naturally. But he sticks around anyhow, taking Tails out into the woods, and teaching him to kill things, and messing up the kid's mind!"

"Priority One! Halt Freedom Fig--" The Swatbot was cut off as a large piece of machinery thrown by a very irate blue hedgehog took its head off.

"…Ok then…" Sonic took another deep breath. "Then Sally starts taking a liking to him, or feeling sorry for him, or something, and starts chewing ME out for trying to keep an eye on the guy! And now… Now, she's actually planning on going on Patrol with the guy while Tails just sits by the ring pool, sulking! He doesn't even get up or anything. I don't think he's even eaten in like a day! Oh, and yesterday, he brought Tails back, and the kid was pale as a ghost! The whole place is totally whacked out!"

"Sonie… have you actually told Sally all that?"

"Uh… kinda. This was the short version." Sonic finally exhaled. "Why? You want the long version?"

"No… that's ok. I got the basics of it."

"Well? What do you think?"

"I think… if you told Princess Sally all that, it's no wonder she's mad at you."

"Huh?"

Charles sighed. "Tell me, have you talked to this young man yet?"

"Tempest?" Sonic scoffed at the idea. "Well …No. Not really."

"You should." Chuck got off the chair. "That's my advice. Anything else I can help ya with?"

"…"

"Oh, and while you're at it… I've found something strange going on recently. No new junk was being thrown out here, so I did a little investigation work. It seems Robotnick has started, and get this: _a recycling program_. He must be running out of raw materials. Plus, and I doubt this is a coincidence, he's been sending scouting parties to the northlands. You may want to ask this Tempest fellow if he knows anything about them."

"…"

"Sonic!" Charles snapped his fingers, getting the hedgehog's attention. "Where is this …Tempest, now?"

"He's… He's…"

"He's…?"

"He's on patrol."

"Oh… ok then."

"…With Sal."

"OH. Ohhhh… I see." Chuck rubbed his steel reinforced chin. "I'd hurry then, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah… yeah, I better." Sonic mumbled a little, then cheered up. "Thanks, Uncle Chuck."

"Alright… scoot along, now. Before that Swatbot's friends show up. I'd better get moving, too."

"Swatbot?" Sonic looked over his shoulder at the headless robot, stumbling around stupidly. "Oh yeah. Him."

* * *

"After Robotnik tried that, we had to be a lot more careful letting new people into Knothole. I never imagined that anyone would be willing to sell us out like that. They should've known better to deal with someone like Robotnick. …Hmm, that's about where you came in."

"I see." Tempest pushed aside another piece of twisted metal from his way. The borders of the city weren't his idea of a fruitful place to patrol, and he would have rather avoided it, but he needed to leave for Tails to learn to meditate alone… and he had other, less honorable reasons, he had to admit. This … thing between himself and the Acorn Princess needed to be sorted out.

"That's quite a resume' you've worked up," he continued talking. "And… it's good to hear that at least one echidna is still around. Much less a whole city of them."

"Really? Your people are familiar with the echidnas?"

Tempest 'hmfed.' "You could say that. We launched a few… raids… on the island when it passed near the northlands about… oh, four hundred or so years ago. It was pretty messy fighting, though… both the Dingo and Echidna had superior weapons, and every campaign was plagued by strange occurrences, ill omens, and reports of tiny 'gremlins.'"

"Still, many Ephor Anthals - the word we have for those who lead individual Clans - saw the foes on the island as a great opportunity for glory and bragging rites." Tempest didn't miss the way Sally looked him disapprovingly. "One can hardly blame them, really. We had never seen such a thing before. Our natural response was to gauge their power through combat. Much glory was gained in those battles, but much glory was lost, as well. We did get some good from it, however…"

"What?" Sally asked, curious.

"Well… where did you think most of our weaponry came from during the wars with your southerners? We are not an industrial people."

"Are you telling me the Echidna were supplying you?"

Tempest grinned. "Tradition tells us that after our last attempted invasion of the Island, the Echidna offered us a deal. They were engaged in a war of attrition with the dingo, and they were losing. So, they offered us technology and weapons, if we would help fight their war for them. Many chafed at dealing with the echidna and fighting the dingo, but eventually all the Clans accepted the policy."

"So, we gave them warriors… mercenaries, you would call them, and they gave us technological parody with our enemies. The fact is… during our wars with your grandfather's people, we were often better equipped than you, which is why you lost all but the last war." Tempest corrected that. "Really, we would have won the last war, too. Had the One-Tails not defected."

"Though, that does explain a lot…" Sally pointed to his belt and the strange cylinders that hung to one side of it. "Are any of those weapons?"

"A few." Tempest laughed softly.

"Do you still have all of it? The Technology?"

"Hmm? Oh… of course. Up to the point at which they disappeared. We sent a party of warriors up soon after they stopped sending supplies. Many thought they had betrayed us, and others believed they had been vanquished, as none of our mercenaries on the island ever returned… but the whole place was deserted. Even their cities were gone. So we studied and kept what we could and had. Our Wise Men understand it all by now, or so I'm told, but we lack the ability to manufacture many items except by hand."

"We've been looking for a way to build a better deroboticizer… ours still has a failure rate under certain conditions. Have you heard of anything that could undo the roboticization process at home?"

"No… I am not familiar with this 'roboticization,'" Tempest said, but added, "Though… some elder warriors have been known to replace weak limbs with cybernetic ones. Usually, when it is our time to die, we do so either in battle, or with just suddenness. We do not wither, like most."

Sally stepped over the remains of a half destroyed Combot as they continued their patrol. "How long do you live then?"

"Longer than you'd expect. My Father was thirty years in age when he… died. His father lived 'till thirty-five. My Great Grandfather died in a blood duel with the legendary Fedral Na'Fa'Rah, who slayed many foes of his Family. It was no disgrace for my great grandfather to lose to such a warrior in honorable combat." Tempest smiled wistfully. "On average… we live around 30 to 40 years, though some Elders are twice that. It is not as long as many other mobians, but they are long years full of life! A kitsune breathes his last breath when he stops feeling the world around him, and reveling in it."

Sally stopped, and looked out over the edge of a bluff at the dead city of Robotropolis. "This was beautiful …once."

Ho stood next to her, but didn't agree.

"Did you know that a few years ago, we approached the dragons… Dulcy's kin… and asked if they would help us. They said 'no.'"

"I'm not surprised," Tempest said, crossing his arms.

"We asked the humans, too," Sally continued. "They were already fighting, but refused to have anything to do with us. At least until Tails started to work with them. The echidna signed a non-aggression pact last year…" she looked over at him. "And then there are your people, Tempest. But the kitsune won't help us either, will they?"

"No," he admitted. "Not in any of the ways you expect."

She sighed sadly, closing her eyes.

"The whole world is in this fight… and if we lose, everyone does. If even one of the other powers: you, the humans, the dragons, the echidna, if even one just outright helped us…!" Her eyes opened, and there was anger and frustration written on them. "Why? Why won't anyone help us?"

"I can not speak for the other races," Tempest replied, voice stoic but understanding of her plight. "But there is a deep enmity towards southerners among the kitsune. The Elders still remember the betrayal of the one-tails. Sometimes, Princess, a people wish only to be left alone."

"Your people are a part of this world as much as mine," Sally retorted.

"Merely sharing the same planet means nothing." Tempest looked out over the bluff, towards the inner section of the Ring of suburbs surrounding Robotropolis. "Before Robotnik rose to power here, more than a few of our War Leaders had plans for this city. Had Robotnik not been here… many Ephors wished to sack this city."

Sally nodded slowly, as if expecting the grim news. "Why?"

"The humans wished us to involve ourselves in their war with you," Tempest said with a shrug. "Many wished to avenge the betrayal of the one-tails. The Clans on the border lost a great deal of power and prestige when your Grandfather invaded. My Clan included."

"I was not averse to the proposal myself," he answered plainly, honestly. "I would have been among them, and you… would likely have been killed. Maybe even at my hands. But then, that Princess wouldn't be you. She'd be a spoiled, self centered royal brat, with no instinct… no concept of honor. She wouldn't be a warrior worthy of your name."

"So you'd have no problem killing her, but not me. Is that right?" Sally asked.

"It would seem so," he agreed and growled though it came out more like a content rumble in his throat. "You are… standing close to me again. Like the night before. Why?"

"Well… I thought you might like it," she smiled up at him. "And… I…"

"I can tell you, Princess," Tempest stiffened. "That you confused me by doing it. I do not like confusion."

She did likewise, and stood away from him with a huff. "So… you don't like…"

"Confusion." Tempest interrupted. "No I do not."

She turned on him, with sudden anger. "Am I that repulsive that you don't even want me near you?! All because I'm… I'm… Not one of you?"

She pointed at his two tails, their black tips waving in the air.

"Because I don't have those?" She raged. "Are you really that shallow?!"

"I am not…" Her anger seemed contagious, and he was quickly less than calm himself. "It is Tradition! Do you have any idea what that even means to me? No! Because you are not kitsune! And every time I smell you…"

Sally's eyes widened. "Smell me?! So now I STINK too?!"

"No!" Tempest held his hands up, warding her off. "It's just… your smell… it is not just mobian squirrel and chipmunk like you said…"

Sally's anger deflated a bit. "W… what?"

"I smell more." He frowned. "I smell more that just that. It is faint, but… but it… it is almost like another fox. A one tail."

"I don't have any fox blood." She said with confidence. "I'd know if there was."

"I don't doubt that…" Tempest lowered his hands, trying to appear non-threatening. "Besides. You have that hedgehog. He is worth Prey… he is a good animal. The boy thinks the world of him, and tells me you do, too."

Sally's anger quickly dissipated. "I… I know… I feel for him, but… but…"

"But what?" He pressed. It was time to get this thing out in the open. Time to deal with it and be done with such foolishness.

"But…" Sally looked away from him, hiding her face. "But I was never particularly attracted to him… physically…"

Silence.

Tempest had no idea what to say. Sally watched him, expecting something, though she had no idea what. For once, she didn't regret what she had said. It was the truth, and it felt good – liberating – to get it out. When he said nothing, however, she began to worry. She took a step towards him, and saw his tails bristle up.

"Stop…" Tempest said, softly. "I smell another scent. Nearby. I believe it is overlander. How many are there in the city?"

"Two. Usually." Sally looked around from left to right, other troubles quickly put to the wayside. "You can 'smell' them?"

"Quite distinctly." Tempest took a deep breath in through his black nose. "One is sweating… quite profusely. The other… is odd. Difficult to describe… whoever it is, he, they both are male, must be quite large to have a trail this thick…"

"Robotnik," Sally growled this time. "He'd be the 'large' one. Snively would be the other. Are they close by?"

"They are upwind now." Tempest pivoted, sniffing the air. "The trail is fading rapidly. This is my fault… I was distracted and didn't think to…"

"What have we here?" A loud voice boomed, and off in the distance, around two hundred feet out away from the bluff, a large platform rose from the broken ruins of an old factory. Robotnick sneered at the two of them from atop the armored platform, flanked by two transports of Combots.

"Though…" the Eggman added. "Calling me 'large' is a bit rude, isn't it?"

"My apologies." Tempest crossed his arms, and spoke loudly enough for the human to hear him. "Lord Robotnik of Robotropolis, I assume. I also smelt your particular brand of aftershave… but it seemed odd to say you smelt of cherries. Your aftershave?"

"Actually, that would be my shower gel..." Robotnik stroked his long whisker like moustache. "I never expected to find one of your kind here. Well… maybe the little one."

"We'd better go…" Sally tried to grab Tempest's arm, but he motioned for her to relax.

"Robotnik, I have heard much about you."

"I suppose you would. That is the Crown Princess clinging to your arm, is it not?"

"It is. I would advise your automaton guards to stand down."

"Why is that? You're on **my** land, fox."

"My name… is Tempest Na'Vidar. Of the Clan Vidar. I am a representative of my people. And… unless you wish war with us, and I suspect you, as the former head of the War Ministry of the Kingdom of Acorn, would know what that would mean, I suggest you order your units to stand down. Aren't you already fighting a war on three fronts?"

The tyrant gritted his teeth. "The Freedom Fighter with you is an Enemy of the State."

"She is under my protection. And so she shall remain."

"You presume too much, my friend! I could just… take her from you."

"Really?" Tempest growled. "Try, then. We all live or die by our actions, not words."

Robotnik jumped from his platform, and with his arm he waved to his Combots to stand down. "Your people would never know about this… had it happened."

"They'd suspect the worst, Tyrant. Your patrols have violated our lands. You think I do not know? Already, my people are stirring for war… and your blood." Tempest formed a fist, and raised it to his eyelevel. "This is how wars begin, or have you forgotten?"

"I… welcome," Robotnik spat the word. "Contact with the Clans of the North. Any intrusion is purely a result of coincidence and miscommuniction and not malice on my part. However, I cannot abide you providing sanctuary for dissidents and terrorists. It will, ultimately, lead to instability for the both of us."

"And, how do their actions differ from yours? You overthrew the last government here because it was weak. If they overthrow you; it will be for the same reason."

"Clansman." Robotnik held out his hand. "In the interests of peace… and mutual good will… will you hand over that terrorist?"

"No. I shall not," Tempest answered without hesitation. "Frankly, Lord Robotnik: I do not trust you, nor do I trust your instincts or your honor. However… we shall not attack you without provocation. Pray we do not take your violation of our lands as such."

"Of course." Robotnik grinned. It looked like a cave lined with pearly white blocks. "It is, however, an honor to finally meet one of your people. The Kingdom of Acorn is our mutual enemy. Perhaps we could come to some agreement, as I have with the echidna and the dragonkin…"

"The agreement we have so far is enough for our present relationship. We have talked to you. It is more cordial a reception than your predecessors received." Tempest quickly looked down at Sally, who was still holding onto his arm angrily. "Speak, Princess… say what you will, and we shall take our leave."

"Robotnik." Sally took a deep breath, looking the despot in the eyes. "Robotnik… One day… one day soon, we'll be free of you. It may come at my hands… Sonic's… or even Tempest's… but one day, you will pay for your crimes."

"Nonsense!" Robotnik tried to laugh politely. "Well, if you must go, then, please do. Tempest, convey to your people my deepest wishes for cooperation and coexistence. I intend to be a better neighbor than the many who came before me."

"Lord Robotnik of Robotropolis." Tempest nodded slightly.

"Someday soon!" Sally swore.

"Oh… and do not attempt follow us. I have the scent of those robots of yours: They stink of pollution and motor oil. I will know if they try."

"I wouldn't think of it." Robotnik's left eye twitched slightly. Holding onto Sally with one arm wrapped around her waist, Tempest turned, and in an instant, took off in the direction of the closest cover – the polluted and dying edge of the Great Forest. Watching them go, Robotnik snarled; more than any animal of the forest ever had.

"I'll assign a group of Combots to…" Snively started, speaking up from where he was hiding behind a control station on the floating platform.

"No." Robotnik raised a hand, cutting his quasi-nephew off. "Don't. He'll know they're coming."

"But… Sir…"

"I know, you idiot!" Robotnick roared, and Snively cringed in fear at the outburst. "But what good is finding Knothole if our heads are hung on some savage's wall like trophies?!"

"Sir… you're not afraid of them, are you?"

"Afraid, no. But I'm not stupid, Snively. I'm not going to start a war unless… or until, I'm sure I can win. And we are already stretched thin as it is. I will wait for now… Soon, Helios will deliver them all into my hands…"

"Aye… Sir," Snively felt the aerial Platform shutter as Robotnik sat back on his much-padded seat, and, pressing a few controls, headed back for the heart of the City. There was more important work to be done. Snively knew the potential power of the Helios Project. He still hated his master, this… thing that was his uncle… but the alternative was even worse. No: He'd have to keep his eyes open for an opportunity, just like he had when the Ultimate Annihilator was constructed.

At the very least, he could live under Robotnick.

The Acorns, he knew, would kill him.

Still, all he was doing by buying time. This version of Robotnick would bring a world of death to Mobius with the completion of Project Helios, and while Snively did not waver in the application of deadly force, he wanted to live! Not die! What he really needed … was more time. And an ally. Or a dupe. But he needed some sort of edge! Some way! Though it galled him, desperate men often took desperate measures. He had seen the way Shadow looked at his 'Master.'

Yes!

He could be manipulated. The so-called 'Ultimate Lifeform' of his Great Grandfather was unpredictable, but apparently loyal and willing to follow orders. Shadow was also powerful and very successful in tasks assigned to him. Perhaps it was time to take a chance. Colin Kintobor the Second, he silently vowed, would not go quietly into the night!

* * *

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**--Notes Chapter 2--**

**As I said before**, I've never been that happy with the first two chapters of COA:ACO. Contrary to how it may seem, I never really liked using the original characters (even Tempest), which is why these two beginning chapters often annoy me as an author. There's no way I can be truly happy with them without making massive changes to the in-verse continuity. A few things:

The first is Tempest's introduction. I've tried a few times in revisions for the Reload of ACO to better get across his character, toeing the line between him being a jerk and him being somewhat polite about it. He exists in the fic as a kitsune role model, but not in the case of "emulate this guy" but more "listen, learn, and don't be like him." Tempest represents the fundamental flaws of his people, who could be useful, but refuse to be. Like all kitsune, he is xenophobic, isolationist, and slaves to their Traditions (without even wondering why they have those traditions in the first place). Their "powers" are the same things that beat them into conformity. Tempest is only a little more liberal than most by virtue of him not being accountable to anyone except his six immediate peers (the other Ephors).

Nonetheless, I'm never really happy with how I have to write Tempest in these intro chapters. He comes off as much more the character I intended in NWO (New World Order), where he's "himself" and back among his own kind.

The second big thing is the Tempest/Sally stuff. From the very first iteration of the story, this was but the first of many examples of relationship failure in COA. My purposes in it were: **A**. To again show how the kitsune groupthink basically makes them unable to adapt to situations, even when they want to; **B**. To make Sonic jealous of a possible rival vis-à-vis Sally, as a counter to thee flings he's had that did the same for her – in other words, it's a catalyst for Son/Sal to "get more serious"; **C**. It is also an avenue for me to fill in more backstory and some characterization.

I'm often still not happy with it. Too much of it seems rushed now, since I had to collapse 4 chapters of stuff into 2 to make room for all the new action and stuff in Chapter 3 onward.

Rush (one of the OCs that weren't my creations) also shows up here, for like one scene and then disappears. I retained the characters because in the original outline, he has more of a role in Book Three. Which is hundreds and hundreds of pages from now. Lol. Well, here he gives a little background info on Angel Island.

As an author, I often worry about these two chapters turning off readers. Especially because of OCs (that subsequently fade into the background in the following chapters). Well, there's tons of action and new stuff for those who muscled through this far and read on…

* * *


	8. Rogues i

**"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead."  
- Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)**

**"When love is in excess it brings a man not honor nor any worthiness."  
- Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC)**

* * *

"Are they following us?"

"No… I don't think so." Tempest put Sally down, and sat nearby. "I was mostly bluffing when I said I could smell them. Really, everything around here seems to stink of that city's pollution."

Sally didn't sound worried, just determined. "So they could be following us, then?"

"It is… probable." Tempest caught his breath quickly. "We should find cover, and wait them out. Then they will either attack and reveal themselves, or we shall lose them at a later time by taking a more circumspect route. Either would be preferable than them finding your Knothole."

"I know a place…" Sally checked her backpack. Looking over a detailed map, she pointed towards a position deep in the forest. "The Dead Springs. The area is literally crisscrossed by tunnels and caves. We can hide out there."

Tempest got to his feet. "As you wish..."

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER THREE:_

**Rogues (Frailty, Thy Name Is)**

* * *

It was a good thing that Miles current self was just sitting around, doing nothing. It made Lara's work easier. She'd put off the night's normal routine of revelry, and instead looked into the problem at hand. She'd secretly taken a look at public records and city security logs, but there hadn't been anything altogether unusual given the time period and the widespread and healthy paranoia it took to keep the city basically a secret to the outside world. There was only one obvious recourse left, and that one just happened to spend most of its time in Princess Sally Acorn's personal possession.

Simply getting Nicole was a bit risky, luckily there was another option.

"Ok, what now?"

"Everything should be set up now, including the digital work around we'll need to establish a connection." Miles had worked her through things, helping her to set up the remote connection with commercially available electronics. "All that remains is the security overlay, but Nicole herself should recognize you. The important thing is that no one else notices you contacting her on this frequency."

Lara nodded, even though he wasn't really present to see it. In her hands, the bargain basement laptop began to run the uplink program. Nicole had not yet evolved into NICOLE, but she would still be running the background protocols… including the secret ones. One of those was a communications network that linked her to all of her independent fragments, as well as her Overwatch Routines. It was Nicole Overwatch she meant to contact, and through her, Nicole proper.

While the signal processed, Lara took a few seconds to watch Miles, or Tails, rather. He sat on the grass, perfectly still, his legs crossed beneath him. It was a posture she had seen him in many times before.

"Is this where you learned to be like that?" she asked.

"Well…" Miles, her Miles, responded with some reservation, "I am extrospective by nature, so mental focus of this sort had to be learned through practice. Sonic never seemed to have problems with how he felt, or what he wanted in life, and he had a… a cool sort of attitude I always tried to emulate. You could say that I always thought: 'what would Sonic do?' rather than 'what do I want?' And when being like Sonic made me miserable, or led to failure, it fed into a lot of resentment and anger. I only wish I'd realized that much sooner."

"The mental focus I learned…" He laughed self depreciatingly. "Grudgingly… was the most important lesson I picked up during my Turan'Ha. Most Kitsune can lose themselves in physical routine, like training or hunting, but what I needed most was time to think and a way to clear my mind."

"This is where _she_ comes in, isn't it?"

"You never knew her as I did. She was… kind."

"Is that all?"

"She was kind of cute, too. And I was a… horny teenager, so to speak." He paused. "I still can't forgive myself for what happened to her."

"It was Merlin…"

"No, Lara. Merlin set things in motion. But **I'm** the one who destroyed her."

* * *

'The grass has grown.'

Time passes by.

'What was the groundskeeper's name, anyway? I think it started with an H."

Flies by.

'Doesn't matter. I still won't move, though.'

Look! There it goes!

'Hmm… I wonder how long I've been here…?'

Suddenly, something caught Tails' eye. He had never, oddly enough, been ready to fall asleep, which was good, because then he would have fallen backwards and 'moved' but what just passed before him immediately grabbed his attention. Near the pool, out of the shade where he was, he could make out someone bending over to pick up a flower. Gritting his teeth, Tails noticed a soft looking tail and drooping, long ears and gentle curves…

Definitely not the grizzled old groundskeeper.

'Oh, mamma…'

"Hey!" Tails couldn't help but call out. The figure, so obviously female, looked his way and smiled. Standing up, she walked up to him.

"Hi," she said, smiling.

Tails could feel his pulse quicken, and the physiological reaction barely processed in his mind. But it did, and in a moment, he realized something. He'd felt attraction towards more than a few girls before, but he'd never really wanted to – for lack of a better phrase – jump their bones before. It was somewhat unusual to suddenly want to do so now, and with a total stranger. He took a good look at her: she was a female rabbit, mostly a lighter shade than Bunnie (almost cream colored), save for the tips of her ears, a patch on the top of her head, and the shadow around her eyes. Her body was filling out, but not so much as Sally. She had Fiona's original android body type, actually, but before he had fixed and upgraded her.

He did notice a familiar insignia on the armband she wore.

'Calm… calm….'

"Yo," Tails said gruffly, trying to smooth out his voice. "I'm… Tails. I haven't seen you around Knothole before…"

"I'm Cream." She sat down next to him, tucking her legs under her thighs. "Here from the Eastern Resistance Cell… The 31st Rapid Insertion Group…"

31st Rapid Insertion Group; his picture perfect memory recalled a plethora of details about their service history. They'd been organized by two Freedom Fighter graduates a year ago. Final operational approval had been signed by the King and Sally eleven months ago. They'd ran several mid level operations: Operation White Noise, Wire Cutter and Black Ocean. 1 KIA, 1 MIA, 5 still active.

He then remembered that the 31st was currently on leisure rotation on Knothole, along with the 27th RI and the 4th and 11th Special Ops.

"The 31st…" he recalled their vernacular name. "That's 'Bradley's Boys.'"

"Boys and girls, sir," she replied, still smiling, and gave him a quick salute. "I saw you sitting here earlier."

She did?

"I hope I didn't disturb you…"

"Oh… I'm just… was just… meditating," Tails said, thinking quickly. "You know… power is nothing without control. 'Skill in battle and strength are important to victory, but wasted without a clear mind to guide them.'"

'Or something like that.' He wanted to kick himself.

Cream seemed impressed. "…How long have you been here meditating?"

"Well…" Tails grinned, and before he knew it, lied. "Really? Ah… little over a day."

"How can you stay in one spot for so long? Isn't it hard?"

"I ask myself that… sometimes." Tails flexed his arm, showing off his new muscle. "But discipline and training pays off. In the end."

She cautiously felt Tail's bicep.

Tails felt lightheaded. He's never gotten any sort of female attention like this! Most didn't want anything to do with him; others were robots trying to kill him, people trying to exploit him or friends turning their back on him. Of course, he was lying about nearly everything, but that hardly seemed to matter at the moment.

"I get up at 6:00 every morning and train. It takes constant effort… and even then… did you know I can actually punch through a tree?"

"I don't believe it!" She seemed a little skeptical, then looked down at his arm again. "A solid tree?"

"Old Oak. Split one down the base two days ago. Easy as anything."

"Amazing… do you work out your whole body?"

"Yep!" Tails flashed a quick prize-winning grin. "I'm the second fastest guy here, After Sonic. Though… I'm thinking that recently I may be even faster than he is. What with all my latest _secret_ training and all."

She 'ooo'ed and he could feel her curves against his back, running her hands along his shoulders, now tense, and finally just to the base of his neck. Abruptly, the hair along his back spiked a little, and she gasped when it did, tickling her fingers. "Neat," he heard her say.

'Oh?' Tails thought. 'You think 'that's neat? I won't move my body… but I've got a few surprises…'

Suddenly, his tails whipped up and began moving slowly back and forth, distracting her.

She gasped.

"Two tails?" Cream reached down and felt the soft fur, not as soft as it once was, but thicker, denser than before. "I'd heard about a two tailed fox living at Knothole..."

"That's me!" Tails puffed his chest up, keeping his voice a little lower in pitch that it normally would be. "The one and only."

"I'd heard he was a kid," she said.

…

"A common misconception… I…" Before he could say any more, a buzzing sound interrupted. Reaching down, and quickly checking the pager he'd left on the ground near his other work, Tails' eyes narrowed. "What the…?"

Cream cocked her head at the pager, and watched as he stood up.

"I thought you were…"

Tails turned towards the town of Knothole proper. "There's trouble."

* * *

Lara couldn't help but listen in, especially since Nicole Overwatch had yet to contact her (plus, it was funny as Hell watching Miles make an absolute idiot of himself trying to impress a girl). But in regards to why she was ostensibly here, there were some problems. There didn't seem to be _anything_ going over the communication waves Miles had told her to look into. She did notice the spike in activity on normal security comms, however.

"Something's wrong," Miles stated the obvious. "Overwatch has been compromised."

"Could someone have sabotaged the Command AI?" Lara guessed. "Or cut communication between it and the primary Nicole?"

"No one in this time should even **know** about the Overwatch protocols."

"That's a yes, then," Lara assumed, and also stood up, clapping the laptop closed. She stole a look over at Tails and Cream. "I'm betting this didn't happen in the normal timeline, did it?"

"No. Follow them."

"Heh!" Lara smirked. "As if I need to be told _that_."

* * *

Knothole National Defense Research Station Delta

NDRS-D was a maximum security station, dedicated to data mining and city wide networking. All internal and external communications were routed through it, as any other communications were automatically blocked by the city shield and cloak. Located within the "new city" center, directly below a government building, it was encased within a solid concrete mountain of a structure, built in the old overlander style. Tails had designed and organized many of the defenses himself soon after his hiatus to Station Square.

Three concentric passive security rings surrounded the facility, even before one got into the lobby. Once inside, two banks of eavesdropping and electronic surveillance and monitoring equipment could detect anyone entering with weapons, explosives, or sophisticated electronics. The below ground facility could only be accessed by a separate set of elevators within an isolated security zone, guarded by a cadre of military police. Protocol meant that the security blast doors would only open for those with clearance, confirmed first by facial recognition software, key encoded voice recognition software, and retinal scan. Personal identification included weight, and the elevators would not descend if a deviation of plus or minus 10 of the calculated normal was detected.

Inside, the lobby was in shambles: marble set pieces and tables had been tossed out of position, and guards were strewn in every direction. Some hung lazily by cables torn out of the ceiling, and yet others were piled and stacked like cardboard. Spent shell casings lay in pools of water, as the fire retardant sprinkler systems showered down everything and everyone. The security block was likewise trashed; the equipment destroyed, particularly anything with surveillance or recording capacity.

Amid the destruction, a small figure in a baklava furiously typed at the elevator security junction. After only a few seconds, the masked figure cursed with a decidedly female voice.

"Damnit!" she cursed again, and turned from the keyboard. "Lockdown includes a mechanical switching feature and a non-engage magnetic seal… I **really** hope this works…!"

She was one of several, all wearing black hoods and baklavas.

Another handed her a small piece of electronic hardware.

"It'll work," he assured her. "We didn't come this far to be stopped now."

The female tilted her head, and snatched the tiny device out of his hand. Attaching it to the end of a cable, she went back to the keyboard. Her fingers were a blur as they moved, and visible despite her mask, her eyes widened in delight and surprise.

"Look at this! And… and…! Boy, you weren't kidding! Where did you _get_ this?!"

"That isn't something you need to concern yourself with," another of the facility's invaders spoke up, with another female voice. This one was taller than the male who had spoken, and her sharp slanted eyes offered little in the way of compromise.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up and work," the smaller female at the keyboard grumbled. "Not that you idiots would have a chance at pulling this off without me…"

"Boss!" another one, also female, spoke up via one of the other terrorist's handheld transceivers. "We got cops!"

The 'Boss,' a medium sized mobian standing behind the one working on the computer, reached up to activate the transceiver strapped to his chest, over his bulletproof vest.

"Well, that was quick." He then asked, simply, "How many?"

"Ha! Like all of em, maybe?"

The 'Boss' smirked. "Sounds like fun… use the hostages."

"Don't kill any of them," the slant-eyed female from before added, also activating her transceiver. "You'll answer to me if you do."

Despite her apparent lack of a weapon, the threat seemed to be taken genuinely.

"Probably best not to kill any of them," the 'Boss' agreed, but added, "Feel free to knock a few around, though."

The woman glared at him.

"A hostage with a little blood on them is more convincing," the 'Boss' answered her unspoken question. He then turned to the woman at the keyboard. "You about done?"

"One second…" she replied.

A second passed.

"That was a second."

"Hold on one second…"

"You just said that! Are you done or not?"

"When I say one second, I don't mean literally one second!!"

"Well then say what you mean!"

"You're such an idiot!"

The assembled terrorists looked at each other with dubious eyes.

Then the elevator opened with a happy 'ding!'

The female made a loud 'hrrumph!' "Yeah, no one thank me or anything. Really."

And they went back to being at least semi-professional. While the female at the keyboard unplugged the device from before, sticking it into a vest pocket, she picked up a duffel bag and headed for the elevator. The 'Boss' motioned with his hand, and a particularly large terrorist followed her. He followed right behind. Two other terrorists, the slit eyed female and the male, looked to each other. The female nodded, and he headed back to the lobby. She then joined the three others inside the elevator, and with another happy ping, the doors closed and it descended.

As he went around to the front, he approached the three other terrorists guarding the entrance to the facility. They'd locked down most of the exits, including the main elevators, fire escapes, security and maintenance. Piles of half melted metal slag and marble tables were blocking the obvious routes that would be stormed. They'd also taken a moment to spray paint the windows. A row of hostages had been assembled near the front, ready to get caught in the crossfire if the cops came in from the front.

One of the security guards cursed, and a second later he was on the floor with a bloody face, courtesy of the butt end of a rifle. Standing over him was one of the terrorists, long white tipped fox tail swishing back and forth excitedly. Reaching down to her belt, the terrorist unclipped a rather large combat knife.

"Big Mistake," she hissed, sweet voice laced with venom as she reached down and held the knife to the male's face. "Trying to grab my gun like that? Think you're a hero? Huh?"

"Hey!"

Turning in the direction of the new comer's voice, the woman frowned.

"None of that, alright?" The male who had been with the others in the security checkpoint held up his white gloved hand. "Alright?" he repeated.

The female kept her frown, but quickly put the knife away.

"Fine, take the fun out of everything!" she quipped, but kicked the guard on the ground firmly in the gut. He balled up as the wind was knocked out of him. Behind his mask, the other terrorist frowned right back.

At that moment, another female voice spoke up. "We got a throw phone. Who wants it?"

"That'd be me," another male, this one with a crooked purple colored tail, spoke up and held out his hand. He chuckled and waved his fingers. "Oooh, I'm a mysterious terrorist. Who knows what I want?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just take care of it…"

The crooked tailed terrorist examined the small phone they'd been given, and flipped it open. He then held something up to it, and clipped it on place. Checking it, he nodded to the others. Just a second later, a call came in.

"Listen very carefully," the male immediately spoke, cutting off anyone on the other side. "I have sixteen hostages, and only two demands. That's eight hostages for each demand. A fair exchange, is it not?"

"We are listening to your demands," a voice on the other end said. "Just let the hostages go."

"Now, now, you must know how this goes. Every thirty minutes my demands go unmet, I will execute a hostage, starting with the building security, and ending with the civilians. If you attempt to storm the building… if even one of my men die, a dead-man's switch will blow all these poor people to Hell." The male paused, and smiled, a single large tooth poking out from under his upper lip. The voice scrambling hardware seemed to be working perfectly. At least no one had recognized him yet.

"Is that understood? Answer yes, or no."

"Yes. Yes it is."

"Good. First demand: I want to speak with the leader of your Freedom Fighters, Princess Sally. Second: I want justice for all the enslaved peoples of Mercia."

Quickly closing the phone, the male scoffed.

"Well, that should throw them off a bit," the knife-happy female from before commented with no small amount of amusement. "What do we do after thirty minutes?"

"It won't take that long," the male who had been with the real leaders answered her. "Even if it does, we'll come up with a reason not to kill anyone."

"Little strange, don't ya think?" the other female, the one who had retrieved the throw phone, stood next to the one with the crooked tail. She was facing the front of the building, though, and watching for trouble. "Doing all this, but not wanting to hurt anyone?"

"You three have a different reason for fighting than I do." The male in question looked off to the side at the assembled hostages. He was the only one without a firearm. "That's all…."

* * *

Tails arrived on the scene, followed soon after by a panting Cream. Any trace of boyish nervousness was long gone, and he immediately went into work-mode. Storming right up to the commanding officer in charge, he set himself to being appraised of the situation in person. Despite his now mostly average stature, he spoke firmly and with the tone of someone used to telling other what to do.

"Mercians?"

"We're running a trace on any possible connections…"

"No," Tails shook his head as he said it. "The MLF or PMDM wouldn't strike a government facility like this. They're both low tech groups, and according to the reports we've been able to salvage, they neutralized security without a single casualty. Not even one shot fired."

The ranking police officer on the scene was a canine, vastly larger than Tails himself. His ears folded back as he processed what he'd been told. "You don't mean…?"

"They're after the data vault. And they knew enough to cut off even the emergency communications. Even knowing what to do, I wouldn't have thought it possible…" Tails gritted his teeth. "How many snipers do you have in position?"

"Three teams. But they've covered their blind spots and the bomb they planted…"

"Where the Hell is your sniffer?"

"Running diagnostics on it now," the canine replied, and pointed over to a parked van. "We'll be sending it in, in five minutes."

Tails nodded. "All right. Five minutes. Let me make this clear: if we confirm that there is no bomb in there, we will storm the building. The information in that facility could compromise the entire city's existence! Not to mention…"

But he didn't say any more.

"Sir, let me come, too!" Cream jumped in on the conversation. "I've seen combat, and…"

"Suit up and get your gear," Tails cut her off. "I'll be leading this myself."

The officer soughed politely. "Uh… I don't suppose…"

"Sonic isn't here," Tails replied, not even needing to hear the question. "You'll have to make due with me."

The officer nodded primly. "Yes, sir."

* * *

Lara watched the entire scene play out, unsure exactly how or if to intervene.

It was bad enough to have minor perturbations in the timeline, but this was on another scale altogether. Not like she was well versed in this time period, but she knew nothing like this had ever occurred. Miles… Tails should have been relatively undisturbed in his meditation. His meeting with Cream would have been the start of a short lived relationship, and more importantly, this was around the time when he met Nail, who Lara knew from when they'd worked together in the future.

All that was royally screwed up now!

Not that Lara liked Cream, personally, but history had happened in a certain way, and it would have been nice for things to stay the proverbial course. Concealing herself, and watching everything that was going on down below from the top of a nearby building, Lara couldn't help but wonder what this meant. Not only had things already changed, but how much would change as a consequence…

Cream seemed to still be getting involved, to Lara's annoyance. The girl was nothing but trouble in the time she knew from personal experience, and by trouble, she meant "psycho monster bitch." Not that it was her fault, but she was the **enemy**. And an enemy with a very personal hatred of the echidna girl, ever since that battle they'd had in Echidnapolis. But even if Miles could be well off without associating with her, he probably needed some of Nail's training. Though they **did** seem to pretty much despise each other in the future…

She shook her head.

Was she just looking for any excuse to change things? But that had always been her intention, hadn't it? The first time she'd been sent into the past, it had been to try and change it. Of course, she'd failed, and failed a second time, too. It was only after she'd been sent back and stuck in the past, fulfilling a time loop, that'd she'd mentally given up on trying to change the future. She'd learned that there was more to the world than her own interpretation of events, and her own narrow self interest.

What had happened to her father was probably the best proof of that she could have ever had. She had tried so hard to keep him from falling to what she had always assumed to be evil. But… in the end, they had needed him to be just that. Without his fall, things would have been even worse! She'd come to accept that. But now…

Here and now…

"This isn't supposed to be happening…" she glared down at the building where the hostages were being held. "This isn't right. What happened? What caused this, and…"

What do I do?

* * *

The 'sniffer' was a small robot, the size of a mouse, but with eight spider-like legs. It was designed for short range reconnaissance, and a prominent module on the front contained a chemical sampler and analyzer. This 'tasted' the air, specifically for tiny chemical residue indicative of explosives or toxic chemicals. It was a sophisticated piece of technology, but not flawless, and it took time to get the necessary number of samples from different locations, even with multiple sniffers. Worse than waiting for the robots, however, was waiting for a different sort of creature.

"We only have eight minutes before they execute a hostage," Tails reigned in the urge to snarl as he spoke into the landline phone. "We can patch them through to you, yes, but they specifically asked for Sally. And she isn't here. Yes. Sir, this is an emergency! We **can not** let any information in there fall into enemy hands! Yes. Yes, sir, I understand."

Hanging up the phone, Tails let out a deep breath.

"Sir!"

He turned to the voice and saw Cream, wearing fatigues and a full combat dress, including protective vest, submachine gun and bandolier. She was a Freedom Fighter, after all. Her training may not have been orthodox, but it was thorough and time tested in battle. She was more of an asset than any of the civil officers of the peace Knothole had… all the best soldiers had long since been sent to fight Robotnick. Only a few real vets were used to shore up things at home.

Looking at her, he felt a twinge – or perhaps a spike – of that feeling from before. But the seriousness of the situation instantly squashed it.

"Is everything in place?" he asked, cutting to the quick.

"Yes, sir. No sign of a bomb so far. They're at 86 certainty, and that was a minute or so ago."

"Good." He threw on a bullet proof vest himself, but had wavered at one of the conventional firearms. For a brief period, he wouldn't have hesitated at all. But bring well armed, even very well armed, hadn't brought him victory in Downunda against Shadow. And Sonic had never bothered with a gun, either, so he had started to think it was best to go back to basics…

But he wasn't Sonic, was he?

Ejecting the clip of a police issue pistol, he locked it back into place, checked the gun itself, and tucked it into his belt. Compared to him, though, Cream was far more heavily armed. Still, she was only Mobian, and he… he was a Chaos User. Or some kind of freak. It depended on who you asked, and whether he was around or not.

"Was that the King?" Cream asked, and he detected a hint of awe in her tone of voice. It had been a long long time since he had been in awe of King Maximilian Acorn.

"Yeah. He wants more time to talk to his advisors," Tails explained, and his frown deepened.

"Isn't he in the Royal Retreat? How did you even contact him?"

"We have a Red Line to the retreat that bypasses the facility in there…" he motioned to the building under siege. "It's the only one we can't monitor."

She nodded, and didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Doesn't… doesn't it strike you as kind of…"

When she trailed off, he gave her a little prod.

"Kind of what?"

"Kind of… inappropriate…" she said the word carefully, as if not sure how to phrase it. "To monitor everyone's conversations? Isn't that facility in there an invasion of privacy?"

Tails closed his eyes and smiled warily.

"I understand what you mean," he said. "But we're in a war, as you well know. And this city has secrets that can't be leaked. The security of the city and the success of the war… has to take precedence."

"I… guess so…" She certainly didn't sound convinced.

For a moment, looking at her reminded him of someone.

"I just wish Bunnie still had her combat bionics," he mused aloud. "But with her running civilian hardware and Sonic gone…"

He noticed her expression.

"What?" he asked. Was it something he had said, or…?

"Nothing," Cream replied, adding a reassuring smile to top it off.

Tails was about to say something, though he hadn't thought trough exactly what, when the phone rang. Quickly picking it up, he heard a familiar 'Please wait for his Majesty the King.' A moment later, the King's voice filled his ear.

"Sir. Yes, sir. I understand. Yes. Yes… Ok. Yes, sir."

Cream watched as he carefully hung up the phone.

"Did…?"

"I just got the green light. We hit them in 120 seconds."

* * *

"We're getting awfully close to the 30 minute mark, here," the terrorist with the crooked tail started to fidget. "My tail is twitching. They're going to try something."

"I think I saw that two tailed fox out there," the female with the lavender tail chuckled, turning her head towards the one with the fox tail. "Looks like lover boy wants another round with his ex."

"Ha. Ha." The other female replied, mirthlessly. "That just never gets old with you, does it?"

"Actually, no, it doesn't!"

"She got you there!" The male with the crooked tail laughed openly, and didn't even have the decency to deflate at the fox-tailed terrorist's angry stare. "Oh, come on. It **is** funny. Don't be angry just because it's about you."

"You know what'd be even more funny? Seeing if you can taste the bird shit on my boots when I shove them up your ass."

The lavender female whistled. "Nice one."

"Is it wrong that I find you saying that to be a turn on?"

Standing in the back, only one of the terrorists kept silent.

"Still… its too bad Sonic isn't out there. I'd love another chance to settle our score…"

"Like you could ever beat Sonic!"

"Yeah. Hasn't he beaten you like a dozen times?"

"Maybe like four times. Or five."

The silent terrorist in the back said nothing, but did twitch at the name.

'Sonic…' he thought, but then he heard his two way transceiver come to life, interrupting any further thoughts before they could form.

"We have what we came for." It was the voice of the 'boss.' "We're headed out."

* * *

The front of the lobby erupted in a cacophony of sound and light, as the lead assault team set off flashbangs and stormed the building. At the same time, explosive charges blew out two rear assault points. It was difficult to see inside, but the enemy seemed to have been joined by additional compatriots and co-conspirators.

No doubt they had been in the vault below…. Though how they had gotten through the redundant layers of security, Tails couldn't imagine. Nicole herself might have been capable of hacking it, but she was unique in… many respects. Tails resolved to find out whatever weakness they had found and exploited. If NDRS-D could be broken into, then even his personal assets and bases weren't safe. The thought of someone breaking into his Mystic Ruins base, in particular, was doubly troubling. If anyone, especially the King, found out what he had in there…

He had to catch these people. There was simply no other option.

The SWAT team moved swiftly, securing the lobby and the unconscious or shocked hostages. Many were hacking from the smoke, and others were yelling and screaming, making it an impossible din of noise to try and think in. Not that it took a rocket scientist or particle physicist to figure out where his targets had mysteriously disappeared to. The lobby's main elevator doors were still pried open, and Tails could see the cables that operated it.

"They're on the…!"

"The roof!" a voice cried into his earpiece. "They're on the roof! By the Source, one of them is…" Tails could hear the explosion outside. "They took out our stabilizer! We're going down!"

Tails sneer deepened, as he looked up the elevator shaft. Several zip lines trailed all the way from the top down. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cream. She had a very familiar gun in hand: one Sally often used back when they all took runs to Robotropolis in the Old Days.

"I'll be right behind you!" she cried, and it was good she did; he wasn't listening. Jumping, his tails coiled and erupted into a spin. A gust of wind shot out of the elevator shaft and into the lobby, strong enough to made Cream wince and shield her eyes. Combined with jumping, Tails literally exploded out of the top of the elevator housing. Emerging from his flying spin dash, he straightened out and saw the eight terrorists. He also saw how they planned to escape from the top of the building, surrounded by police.

"Gears…!" he growled, recognizing the distinct design motif. "…You three!"

One of them, the 'boss,' chuckled at the attention as he stood at the edge of the roof, his skateboard-like Gear already active and humming with kinetically excited air.

"Looks like he recognizes us," another one, the largest of them all in physical bulk, commented dryly.

"Despite being an annoying brat, he knows good workmanship when he sees it," one of the females in the group added, and then with a mock salute, she jumped off the edge. "See ya!!"

Followed immediately by the other seven.

Tails raced to the edge of the roof and jumped without an instant's hesitation. Just catching up from having rappelled up the elevator shaft, Cream could only run to the edge and watch as he free fell towards the seven GEAR riders. Within seconds, they were all streaking towards the pavement, but one took a moment to spray a hail of bullets over his left shoulder. Swerving to the side, using his namesakes, Tails darted over to the right. But he could tell, right away, that there was little chance of catching them, even with his speed and momentum…

And then, like a miracle from heaven, he saw a light blue GEAR enter his field of vision. Not even pausing to think just where this gift came from, he tucked, spun, and aligned himself with it. Magnetic and vacuum seals locked his shoes in place, and he immediately shifted his weight to realign the board with the ground: or to be more exact, a parked police car.

One after another, the criminal GEARs shot off the car at an angle, using a well timed burst of air to avert a crash and alter their inertia. Given who he now knew to be behind the attack on the communications facility, Tails could guess what their plan of escape was. Most sane criminals would try and find a way to get out that would avoid people. The Babylon Rogues would head for the most populated area possible and zip right through it, causing as much confusion and havoc as possible.

Zipping across and then down the street, the Rogues and their cohorts went face first into the day's traffic and crowds. Knothole didn't have a lot of vehicles, not like Station Square, but what they did have was an overabundance of absolutely terrible drivers. Mobians had never had much experience with vehicle based societies, and so on a busy day, the streets were thick with bicyclers who didn't think lights or signals applied to them, drivers who felt that the privilege of owing a vehicle meant they owned the road, too, and pedestrians used to just walking wherever the Hell they wanted, whenever the Hell they wanted.

It was a mess at the best of times.

"Captain!" Tails roared over the wind blowing past him, hoping his microphone/earpiece would pick it up and transmit properly. "Divert air assets to 4th street and Howard, and 5th street and Vine! Use of rubber rounds is authorized! Stop them at all costs!"

The eight riders swooped down 3rd street, weaving between cars, and sending bicyclers flying. Up ahead was the city hospital, and if he had guessed right, they planned to head down Clancy, up 4th, and then into either the Civil Center or the National Mall. Either would be complete pandemonium, providing ample opportunity to escape in the madcap and chaos. Tails thought briefly about the pistol still holstered against his thigh, but knew better than to try and take a shot in such a crowded area.

Useless…!

Then he noticed the three lead riders, the Rogues no doubt, zip up and take a higher route, running over the scaffolding of the building. Two others joined them, but three didn't dare the maneuver and stuck to the ground. Tails smirked at the opportunity. Taking the jump himself, he built up speed, ran across the scaffold for only a moment, and then shot downward and into the wake of the slowest of the racers.

Normally, he wouldn't race so aggressively, but these people had some serious explaining to do. They hadn't just committed crimes, or stolen some junk…they endangered the security of Knothole and the success of the War. The things Tails had devoted his life to. It wouldn't all be ruined. Not today!

"Not on my watch!"

With a savage howl, he body checked the rider, and locked their boards. This one was fairly good, but obviously had little understanding of how to use a GEAR offensively. She yelled, panicked, as he usurped her momentum and destabilized her GEAR lift ratio. The lock and break maneuver was simple enough: get under your opponent's GEAR, and you make it impossible for them to stay stable and aloft. The board flew out from under her feet as she stalled, but he grabbed her arm and tossed her to the side, keeping her from hitting the pavement.

Instead, she slammed into the side of a parked car.

As he raced ahead, he could hear its alarm wailing. That was one down, seven to go. The real problem would be the Rogues. They were as good as him – Hell, Jet at least was better. Sonic could probably outrace Jet, but not outfight him when they were on GEARs. But since Sonic wasn't here, Tails would have to make do. He'd said as much earlier, and he'd meant every word.

He had a good idea who the next racer was: the crooked tail, and the lack of hesitation to hose down an area with lead, meant it had to be Fang the so-called Sniper. Aka Nack the Weasel, aka The Purple Thunder, Dr. Enrico Martinez, Rick James, and any number of other ridiculous aliases. As the weasel ahead took a quick look back, Tails saw him change speed, and enter a slide. It was a better maneuver than Tails would have expected. But he never knew Nack could ride GEAR in the first place.

Turning his board so it was sideways, Nack tucked his hands under his arms, and came back with a submachine gun in both. Knowing that the infamous mercenary wouldn't hesitate to open fire, regardless of the risk of hitting innocent bystanders, Tails cursed and jumped. It would leave him open, but it would also keep Nack aiming high, where fewer people would be at risk.

Nack's twin submachine guns roared, spitting hot fire and hotter lead. Tails spun in midair, tucked in his tails, and hardened them with a burst of chaos energy. Covering his face, arms and legs, and most of his torso, he avoided any serious injury. Nack's aim was damn good, even under these circumstances, and Tails winced as he felt several rounds hit his bulletproof vest. None penetrated, but he'd be feeling it when the adrenalin wore off. Luckily, his hide also happened to be thicker than the average Mobians, even before his Kitsune growth spurt started up.

Tails emerged from his spin, and saw that Nack, despite now being out of bullets, was not out of the fight. Discarding both submachine guns, Nack had autoloaders on his wrists, and two very large handguns. Tails recognized the make, even in the confusion, and knew his vest wouldn't hold up against either. Thinking as fast as Sonic would act, the two tailed fox tucked in his legs, kicked off, and ejected from his GEAR. It shot forward and away, and right into Nack as he was trying to take aim.

Slamming into the weasel, Nack ricocheted off a car, but kept on his feet. Tails took the chance to fly down, gain speed, and reconnect with his erratically spinning GEAR. He hit the ground at near full speed, and plowed into Nack like a runaway truck, introducing his elbow to the mercenary's midriff. Nack hacked from the impact and spun out, kept afloat only by the inherent stability of his power type gear. A second later, he crashed into a storefront in a shower of glass and smashed oranges.

'Shame about those…' Tails thought, before focusing on the enemy ahead.

After all, oranges were expensive to smuggle in from the South.

Turning sharply left, he saw the last racer just ahead, but also kept an eye on the five up above. Looking over her shoulder, he could just barely make out the terrorist's face. But then she faced forward, and abruptly crashed off the street and into the sidewalk, sending people diving for cover. Tails immediately broke out of her air wake, not wanting to add to the mayhem. Zipping over to the right and swerving around one car after another, Tails saw the above five descend.

He changed targets, seeing an opportunity, and grabbed the wake of one that had just landed. From her figure, concealed though it was, he could guess at the gender. The long thin tail meant she was probably a feline, too, though that only narrowed things down to a couple million cats across this part of Mobius. Not that she even had to be a local…

As he got closer, she hit a jump off a car, using it to burst her air just as the board tilted upwards. Once in midair, she braked and slowed, trying to come up behind him. Was she trying to slow him down to help the Rogues escape? She had to know he couldn't afford any delay in the chase. Annoyed, he spun and released a mini-tornado, trying to catch her with it as she rode his wake. Seeing the attack, she veered off, and disappeared behind a truck.

A second later, Tails barely avoided a mailbox that came literally out of nowhere. There was little time to wonder what it was. A second later, a lamp post bent, and Tails had to break and slide as he fell backwards, skating under the obstacle. It seemed very odd that the post would have broken like that, but… there was little time to ponder it. The racer up ahead seemed preoccupied with heading to the next jump, to try and cut along it when they made a right turn up ahead.

Tails just hoped the Captain had the air support waiting.

Cutting deeply as he made the turn, heading up 5th Street via Brodie Blvd. It was exactly the route he had expected them to take, and down the street, at 5th and Vine, he could see two black helicopters waiting. There was no way they'd be able to make it to the Mall or the Civic Center now. Would they turn, and try and head south down 5th? If they did, he'd have his men ready at every exit.

And then the lead Rogue, Jet most likely, swerved off course, right… into the fallout shelter tunnels. Tails felt like kicking himself. The tunnels! If he knew where to go, he could go through them, into the aquifer containment system, and then out into the swamps and the old Mobotropolis Road. Reaching up to his earpiece, he yelled to the Captain, to move air assets to the Old Mobotropolis Road outside of town.

Only to belatedly realize that his earpiece had blown off.


	9. Rogues ii

The two other Rogues followed right behind Jet, and so did the reckless accomplice from before, swerving all the while. The feline from before and the one just ahead shot off and headed for the Mall. Tails hadn't expected them to split up, but those two were headed right for the teeth of the helicopters. It would have to be up to the cops to mow them down in a hail of rubber bullets. That just left him with the people he basically learned to ride from.

Shooting down into the sub-system, he turned up his GEAR and surfed along the side of the wall, as people ducked for their lives. Grinding along a safety rail, over a turnstile, and down into the tunnels, he could see the wake of the four criminals up ahead. The tunnels and the raid shelters were built to house the majority of Knothole's population if (or some would argue: when) the town finally came under attack by Robotnick's forces. They were hardened structures, reinforced and built into the otherwise soft soil that was Knothole's foundation. It was also connected to the massive aquifer systems that kept the city from turning into a ghetto pool whenever it rained, given the land nearby was wet and flood prone.

The tunnels were inactive and dark at present, save for the emergency lighting. There were also few obstacles inside them, aside from some emergency equipment, adjacent store rooms, and the occasional squatter or homeless bum. The four riders ahead of him had to be thinking the same thing. If they were going to make a big move, this was the perfect place…

And sure enough, as the reckless rider shot ahead, the riders that had to be a masked Wave and Storm decelerated and shot back. Storm was the first, fitting his personality, as he swung a meaty fist in an attempt to bat Tails' head off. Sliding off, and hitting an air bubble, Tails ducked the first blow, and jumped over the second. Inverting himself, he unleashed another spinning tornado. It was a fine move, but Storm's experience paid off, and he swerved out of it with time to spare.

Before Tails' GEAR even touched ground (so to speak), he had Wave in his face. Where she had hidden an oversized wrench, he had no idea, but the fact that he had it in his hand, just inches from his nose, meant he had bigger problems to look into. She pulled in her board, and tried to lock with him. Dipping his front, he kept her from slipping under his GEAR, and they entered a two person spin.

"Wave…!" he growled. "What the Hell do you think you're doing? What about the Armada? Is this what you call the Pride of the Babylon Rogues?!"

"Don't you…" Wave hissed, bringing her rifle out. "Lecture me on Pride!!"

Only to have his tails wrap around the rifle and twist, tearing it out of her hands and shredding the barrel. Pushing off him, she broke the spin, and Tails cut left to avoid Storm as he shot in from below. The largest and strongest of the Rogues, Tails had no intention of actually letting the slower fighter get a solid hit in. Besides, compared to fighting Tempest, or even Sally, Storm was sloppy and hotheaded. Like a certain Knuckleheaded echidna, he knew all too well.

"Stand still, damnit!" Storm roared as he swung, GEAR sparking at it occasionally touched the actual ground. They were spinning again, swerving from the right to the left, but Storm's size meant he had to lean more into every motion. Finally seeing an opening, Tails struck in and up, planting a palm strike to the big bruiser's sternum and then twisting to add his GEAR's momentum into throwing Storm off his own board. The experienced rider stumbled, broke contact, and barely recovered.

"You little…!"

Just as Tails started to feel confident, a streak of green shot by, and Tails' GEAR immediately caught in the back wake. The move nearly tossed him right then and there, and then he saw Jet speed back up, layering a forward wake over the back wake. There was no way he'd stay stable if his board skipped from one to the other. Instead, Tails hit his breaks, crested the original wave, and rode up along the curved tunnel ceiling. Hitting the ground, he was back behind all three rogues again.

Fighting Jet would be a serious problem.

"I can't let them escape…" Tails reminded himself, finally upholstering the pistol he had requisitioned before. Picking up speed, he saw them turn sharply right. A grate flew through the air, and he knew Storm had cleared their way into the underground aqueduct. Following close behind, Tails felt his board tremble slightly as the ground turned to water. The aqueduct here was a large utility tunnel, smaller than the emergency shelters, but still large enough to move around in. It was about one eighth full of running water, and all four racers up ahead left steaming trails in their wake.

There was only a couple hundred meters before the aqueduct ended.

If the rogues also sensed that they were approaching the end of their race, they didn't make it immediately obvious. Not until they, too, drew their firearms. Everyone knew that the more confined the location, the more useful their weapons were. Tails only had the one pistol, plus twelve shots in the clip, and one spare clip on his right side. Up ahead, Wave and the other non-rogue rider cut into slides, and opened fire. Tails tucked in, using his tails as shields, and also cut into a sliding echelon. Shooting to the side, and up onto the ceiling, he returned fire, trying to hit the high speed, rapidly maneuvering targets up ahead.

Truth be told, he had been aiming mostly for their boards. He'd never thought of himself as a killer. He'd designed his weapons of war to fight robots… and then there had been that incident in the forest, hunting… Antoine had killed in the line of duty before, and he was sure Bunnie had, too. But Sally and Sonic, the two people he admired the most, would never… or would they? No! He was sure they wouldn't. Those two, above all others, had to remain the symbols of hope that they were. If they had ever taken a life, it was something no one could ever find out about.

'But what about me?' he thought, even as he pulled the trigger, aiming for Wave's GEAR, or at least her foot or leg. 'Would anyone really care if I killed someone? Would it really matter? So… why don't I want to kill these people?'

He felt his aim turn up, as a moment's reprieve gave him a clear shot.

'I should!' his thoughts screamed. 'I should! Wave… you….!"

Betrayed me!

"You…"

Should die.

Die.

DIE!

_"What's wrong, brat? Can't pull the trigger? Even after all this? I can't believe you'd hesitate now, after what you… what we… did…" A single gunshot and a laugh. "That shut him up, didn't it… Tails?"_

Wave screamed as the bullet entered her leg and shot out the other side.

'What you deserve… is to live…' Tails pushed off from the ceiling, and his board hit the water with a splash. 'You deserve to live, knowing I don't have to kill you to beat you. And that I **can** beat you. Any time I choose…'

"Wave!" Jet yelled, and he decelerated to catch her before she could hit the water. Tails wasn't blind. He had seen the attachment the Rogues had for each other. Crippling Wave would slow them all down.

A trickle of blood ran down Tails' left arm, and he dully noted he'd also failed to block all the shots to his vulnerable areas with his tails. Strangely, he barely felt the pain. Cruising along the water, waves kicking up on both sides, he felt good. It was just like before… like when he cornered that cougar, or when he caught up with that boar. Bearing his teeth, he could feel his lip curl over his canines.

Tilting his board, slowing his speed slightly as he cruised along, he leveled his handgun. He had two more shots….

And he didn't feel like wasting them.

Storm shouldered an assault rifle. Tails knew the make. It was the design he had recommended when he came back from Station Square, after convincing the government there to help the Mobians rearm. How cute: to shoot at him with the very weapon he had brought to help free his country. The Rogue fired a precise three round burst…

And all three hit one of Tails' tails, deflecting the bullets.

Leveling his own weapon, Tails fired, and Storm snarled in pain as the rifle flew out of his hands. Almost as an after thought, the four riders shot out of the aqueduct, past the concealed exit, and onto the surface of a lake. Tails paid the change of scenery no mind, as he pushed down with his toes, angling it so he accelerated, even with his board in a slide.

"You bastards…" he growled, loud enough for them to hear. "After what you did in Downunda… after I gave you all the chances in the world to redeem yourselves…! Your betrayal cost thousands of lives. The lives of soldiers… who trusted me!"

"Heh!" Jet all but said the word, as he spun in to get between the angry Freedom Fighter and the wounded Wave and Storm. "Should you really be blaming us for your failures, Fire Fox? I bet you blame everyone else for Santa Christie, too. All those people you burned to ash without batting an eye…"

"I didn't pull that trigger."

"No, you just built it!" Jet craned his neck back and forth, swerving to avoid a pile of driftwood without even seeing it. Almost casually, he un-holstered his own gun.

"You should reload," he then suggested. "You only have one bullet left, right? And we're almost to the highway."

Tails ejected the current clip in his gun, and let it fall into the water. Without looking down, he reloaded, using the only spare clip he had.

"Jet," Tails spoke up, taking aim at the Rogue. "After what happened back then… to have you come back here, and try this… I can't forgive it!"

Jet chuckled. It was a laugh that had always reminded Tails of Sonic, or maybe the Anti-Sonic. Like every joke was at someone's expense. Jet may have been willing to ride a GEAR through Hell itself for his mates, for Storm or Wave, but that was about his only redeeming feature. That, and a somewhat twisted sense of fair play when it came to competition.

"We never did get to properly test your Tornado against my Butcher Bird…" Jet shrugged. "But before we have our running gun battle to settle all scores, I think you should see something."

He turned to the non-rogue member of their group, who had hung in all the way to the end. "Take your mask off. Go on. It doesn't matter now anyway."

The fourth racer turned, put her GEAR into slide, and also shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"

Reaching up, she pulled off her baklava.

Tails blinked. He wasn't surprised, but… his frown deepened, mixing with… something else. Disappointment, maybe? Pushing the name past his lips and clenched teeth, he slowly shook his head.

"Fiona…"

"Hmm!" Jet mused out loud, waving his gun dramatically. "Isn't that a surprise? Another pet project of yours that didn't quite work out? Fiona here's told us some interesting stuff about you, lover boy."

"You… shut the Hell up!" Tails could see the highway just up ahead. The Old Road ran close to the lake at one point, and despite its state of disrepair, one could take it to almost anywhere in Eastern Mobius.

Jet nodded sagely, his eyes darting first to Wave, who was still clutching her leg and trying to keep from falling, and then Storm, cradling his wounded hand.

"I… actually have a better idea." And without even looking, he swung his aim around and shot Fiona, knocking her off her board and into the water with a pained scream. She slipped under the waves instantly, almost as if she had never been in the first place. Stunned, Tails only gaped.

"Some other time, kiddo!" Jet gave a little wave before turning and speeding off, with Wave and Storm trailing behind in his wake.

"D… Damnit!" Tails roared in rage, aim lingering on the Rogues' wake. Unable to pull the trigger at the retreating figures, he cursed and spun around one hundred and eighty degrees, heading back towards where Fiona had fallen. Ditching his board, he jumped in, heading down and hoping against hope… and against rationality and common sense.

Four minutes later, on the shore of the lake, he sat next to a coughing female fox. Water ran down the sides of her mouth. Tails wiped his own mouth, half relieved and half disgusted. At least his learning CPR hadn't been for nothing. But…

Fiona…

Of all the Mobians, it had to be her. Even after everything: after Sonic, after Scourge, after **everything**…! Even after every damn thing she had put him through!!

"I…" she coughed, between weak laughs. "I knew… you'd save me…"

Tails closed his eyes, pretending he couldn't hear her.

"I knew it… because deep down… you're _just like him_. A stupid hero…"

Touching the bullet wound on his shoulder, a wound she gave him, he turned to the vixen with a look of pity and remorse. It had always been like this. And he'd never, not once, learned the lesson of it all.

"I… really…" She closed her eyes, drifting off. "Hate you…"

"I hate you, too."

But Fiona was already unconscious. Whether she heard it, whether he even meant it, Tails couldn't begin to guess. He felt exhausted, mentally and physically. But through it all, he felt a growing anger. It was different, hotter, than he was used to. Trying to reign it in, he kept his eyes closed and concentrated. Involuntarily, he pounded the rocky shore of the lake, burying his fist again and again in silent agony before collapsing.

He almost didn't hear the rustle of leaves, as someone emerged from the bushes.

For a moment, he tensed, but then relaxed as he recognized the intruder. A red echidna, wearing a headscarf, a white cape, and a pair of heel-less sandals walked into view. Tails knew Nail, though not well. The echidna often came and went as he pleased, despite being an honorary member of the extended Freedom Fighters family. Tails knew that he was Athair's apprentice and had naturally taken an interest in the young kitsune, given his exceptional status as 'Chosen One' in the eyes of the Walkers. For all that, though, Tails disliked the Nail's mysticism (just as he disliked Athair's), and they tended not to interact much.

"You look like you've done something you regret," Nail observed, eyes wandering over to the unconscious Fiona Fox. "Again."

"Like I need to be lectured about it. I'm sure the King will be more than happy to berate me about this mess." Tails slowly got to his feet, dusting off his gloves. "So. Back already, huh?"

"A lot has happened in the few weeks I've been out, it would seem. …You've grown." Nail stated the obvious, and the less than obvious. "And there's a power in you now… that wasn't there before. Or, at least it is much more obvious than before."

Tails sighed. "Not that it does much good, partnered with bad decisions…"

"I don't know," Nail thought out loud. "There are those who would say you did the right thing; the compassionate thing."

Tails stared down at Fiona and shook his head again.

"They're called idiots."

* * *

Nightfall.

"We'll need a fire." Sally looked in Tempest's direction. "Firewood?"

"No…" He answered. "It'll produce too much smoke."

"If you have a better idea, now's the time to share."

Tempest sighed. Opening a pouch on his belt, he took out a small pen like object, and held it in-between his thumb and forefinger. "Well, I guess the secret's out, anyway."

The tip of the pen hummed, and a long red beam lanced out and struck a nearby rock. Heating it fairly quickly, Tempest turned off the pen-laser and, shaking it quickly, placed it back in the belt pocket.

"Echidna Technology?" Sally warmed her hands an inch or two from the surface of the heated stone.

"Yes. For emergencies. It has batteries, you see," Tempest pointed out. "And those are difficult to replicate. So we use what we have sparingly. Later… if you prefer, you can bed down near one of the old hot springs. It should keep you warm."

"Should?"

"I really wouldn't know, Princess." Tempest sat down, finally, and leaned back, looking up into the sky. "I've never… had to worry about others in the cold, before."

"Oh? So now you're worrying about little old me?"

"You said it, not me." Tempest yawned, and Sally saw a set of deadly canines set in powerful jaws. "It grows late… I'll take first watch."

"I'm surprised you're not saying how you could stay up all night without trying," Sally said, and reached into her backpack.

"Oh... I could," Tempest assured her. "I just don't want to."

"First watch, then? And how long is that, pray tell?" She sat down, knees tight to her chest, hugging her legs.

"How long do you want it to be?" He obviously didn't want to insult her by either giving her less or more than her share of time. Splitting their time down the middle was pretty safe, but he didn't want to annoy her much either. Though, thinking about it, he wasn't sure why. Or rather, he knew why, but didn't want to admit it.

The pregnant silence from earlier loomed.

"I didn't mean… to be rude…earlier." Tempest ventured. "That was never my intention, Princess."

"And I didn't mean to…" Sally searched for the word. "Intimidate you."

Tempest snorted with a loud 'hmf.'

"Intimidate?!"

"That's it." Sally nodded. "Sorry."

"Listen!" Tempest tired to make his intention perfectly clear just by the tone of his voice. "I am NOT intimidated by you! Or anyone!"

"You're not?" She asked.

"No!" Tempest barked.

"It seems that way to me. I mean it wouldn't be surprising if you were. You have this… opinion of 'my people' as weak and inferior and you call us Prey. But you let me train with your pupil, and you don't keep that tone around when you talk to me, and you seem not to mind my company, and…"

"Intimidate is the wrong word!"

Sally sighed.

Silence.

"A better word would be…" Tempest spoke up again. "Ah… Tah'shia."

"Tah Shia?"

"Yes." Tempest agreed, accepting her slight mispronunciation. "It is a kitsune word, which describes a Prey animal one feels great sadness in killing, because it deprives others of it. It fills one with a sorrow akin to greed, because you feel selfish making such a kill."

Silence descended once more, and this time neither broke it. Tempest was still on his back looking up at the sky, admiring how the most brilliant stars were just faintly managing to shine in the pre twilight. Sally was, at once, looking at him and looking at the sky. They should have gotten back at Knothole by now. The others would start to worry, but standard operating procedure was to wait at least a half-day. Normally, she wouldn't have minded the silence… but this was something they had to talk about.

Just sitting around wasn't helping anything!

"I…" She said, suddenly. "I won't do it anymore."

"What?" Tempest switched from looking at the sky to looking at her. His eyes, a mix of black and gray, met her own. She shook her head.

"I know you're uncomfortable with me." She closed her eyes tightly. "That's ok. I can respect that. I'm not sure what… what I want or anything… It isn't fair to involve you in things, and…"

"You were happy before I came along?" He phrased it as a question, and waited for her to tentatively nod. "Then you will be happy after I leave."

"What… what about you?" She asked. "Were you happy before you came here?"

Tempest didn't answer. Feeling for him, she crawled over and laid down perpendicular to him, resting her head on his stomach. Tempest growled, and Sally could feel it reverberate throughout his body and into hers.

"Tell me something… why were you chosen to find Tails?" Sally leaned her shoulder back against his body, which was surprisingly warm, almost glowing with body heat.

Tempest stifled a laugh. "I wish I knew… Though, I'm starting to think he's the one the Lord of the Ice told me of."

"Lord of the Ice?" Sally asked.

"You don't know? Didn't the One-Tails bring their faith with them when they defected? What Gods do you believe in?"

"That's an odd question," Sally thought about it for a second before answering. "None really. Some believe the Source of All is God, but… I have my own thoughts about what it is."

"Let me tell you of our beliefs, then," Tempest began, eyelids lowering lazily. "We are an ancient people, almost as old as the ancestors of the Wolf Packs. Our Tradition tells us, however, of a time before we grew. When the world was young and pure, seething and bubbling with magical energy. The Lords of the Ice built a great and mighty civilization, and the power of their minds traveled between the stars. They created for their purposes the first Gems of Chaos, and gained mastery of their existence itself. They spread and explored, but found no others similar to themselves. So, after countless centuries, they learned all there was to know."

"Everything?"

"Everything… save one thing. Though they had long outgrown the constraints of life and death, they still yearned for the answer. The answer. To the question: why do we exist? Without purpose, they found all their technology and power lent no meaning to their lives… so they scrapped their cities, and went home - to the icy north. To wander the wastes, for they need not eat or drink, looking only for their own personal answer to the ultimate question. Eventually, most just… faded away, content with what they eventually found within themselves, but not before one last grand experiment to help them understand the life and death they no longer felt. So… they created the Second Race."

"Let me guess. Your people?"

"Among many others. The Ancient Wolves were the first of the Second Race. We, the Kitsune, are the second. They took the strongest, fiercest predators, the most adaptable life they could find, and gifted them with intelligence. And, so the world, this Mobius, was consumed by War, for ten glorious centuries. And in the end, we died. Only a few scant traces of intelligent life survived the First Cataclysm and the First Destroyer. Few Foxes, Few Wolves. Few Dingo… scattered throughout the world."

"We were cast down by the Lords of the Ice, who again walked among the ashes of their world, and restored it, saddened by the failure of their experiment. Realizing an error, they crafted the Third races: your people. The Echidna, we are taught, were the first of the Third Race. Then the Squirrel…" Tempest suddenly snarled. "They cast us down, their Firstborn Heirs, and gave our world to those who were our Prey! We were forsaken!"

Sally kept quiet.

"Still, for them at least, all seemed well at first…" Tempest continued and tried to calm down. "Then… things fell apart. The system was not sustainable, and could not hold steady. The once… peaceful prey of this world multiplied beyond number, and the resources of Mobius were consumed like so much fruit, and the planet was quickly wracked by starvation and plague. Wars erupted between the Prey for food and land. We, too, fought… though our numbers had dwindled, and our races forsaken. It was the Second Cataclysm. The Second Destroyer."

"Finally." Tempest opened his eyes. "Finally, the Lords of the Ice again restored the world, and returned it to as before. And so, the Fourth Age began, and so did our recorded history, as the Second Races were again restored to a position of power, and cast among the Third Races, to control them and to keep the Balance. The Lords… returned to the Great Endless Ice to watch, and pray, and search for their answers. This Fourth Age, however, had one other addition to it."

"What?"

"The overlanders… they are an anomaly. They appear to be the youngest of the Races. Some have called them the Fourth Race; an amalgamation of both predator and prey in one… a failed experiment, it would seem. Without any real breeding population left, they'll be extinct in a few decades at most. The Lords of the Ice are mysterious… perhaps, in the Next Age, the humans shall be risen once more."

"Wait…" Sally remembered from earlier. "Didn't you say before that one of them spoke to you?"

"Yes… Years ago, I planned to ascend to the position of Ephor Anthal of my Clan. The previous War Leader had died, but his Heir was weak, and not fit to take the position. There was also no clear line of male succession from those with blood ties to the previous leader, and many others came forth who also had fit claim to the title. Normally, in this situation, a series of blood duels would decide who became Ephor Anthal, but such a thing would have further weakened Clan Vidar in respect to the other Clans. The Elders were consulted. This was not the first time Clan Vidar had faced this sort of problem, and they remembered how, centuries before, a different sort of contest had been held to settle the issue."

"After trails testing wisdom, strength, and purity of mind, there were only four others who had a truly legitimate claim to be War Leader, and so we went on The Quest. I wandered the Endless Ice for months… More often than I care to recall, I almost starved, only to find a beached whale… or seal exposed on the Ice. It was… the hardest year of my life. Only later, I would learn that two others who had left with me had returned, half dead, and the other two… never left the Ice alive. I kept going… not really knowing what I was searching for, but knowing I would either find it, or die trying."

Tempest reached down, and with his finger, traced the contours of the ring on his right hand's middle finger. "Then… I died."

"You… died?" Sally asked. "Don't tell me you're a ghost, Tempest. You feel real to me."

"Oh, I died…" Tempest murmured. "I'm sure of it. But one of Them brought me back to life. I'll never forget his words… 'What is death, to one who cannot die? It is a prophecy, Vidar… and this is not your time.' I looked up, and, standing above me was a giant. A white giant. His coat was long, and as white as snow, throughout. His legs were sheathed in pure white boots that curved over his knees, and along his chest was a sash, studded by some platinum metal. His arms were crossed, and though I could see his face because it was shrouded by mist, I could see that his eyes pure and deepest black…. I stumbled to my feet, and bowed, as best I could."

"He told me I could ask of him one thing, and only one thing. And to never again search for answers on the Endless Ice. I asked him… I asked him what my life was leading to. And, without even thinking about it, he answered: 'You will find the One who will embody your people, you will love and be hated, you will hate and be forced to love, and then you shall die.'"

"Then, he threw to the ground a single black object. Holding his hand to the sky, a blazing red and green aurora filled the heavens, and the ground split down the middle, from horizon to horizon, 'Choose a Path, and leave,' he said, and disappeared. …I walked for almost two weeks, hunting as I went, withering away… Then, I finally found a small hunting party charting the area for migratory whales. They were waiting for me exactly where the great crack in the ice ended… I was taken back to my Clan, and with this ring as proof, I was instated as Ephor Anthal the next month."

"Could I see it? The ring?" Sally asked, and reached for Nicole, hidden in her vest's inner pocket.

"I suppose…" Tempest took the small ring off his middle finger, and handed it to her. It seemed totally mundane; completely plain. It was a solid black, all around, and somewhat heavy for its size. Sally held the small ring over Nicole.

"Nicole… can you identify this?"

"One moment please." The minicomputer responded, and a lance of light shot out to engulf the black ring. Nicole scanned it for several seconds, and then several more. Finally, she calculated a full reply.

"This unit is of unknown design and composition. Unit is circular to an accuracy of one times ten to the negative twenty meters. Note: scanning range is insufficient to measure the inaccuracies of this unit's construction. Material identity is unknown and does not conform to present or available future databases. Age is unknown. Function is unknown, but assumed to be ornamental. Trace amounts of Chaos Energy are detectable within the unit. Speculative analysis at this time is inconclusive."

"Our Elders could not study it, and our finest Blacksmiths could not damage it or alter it in the least." Tempest seemed oddly detached. "They told me it was unbreakable. I suppose… maybe the Cathumantana Blade could cut through it… but even that I doubt."

"And he just gave you this?" Sally held it up to what waning day's light.

"Give an animal a gun, see if he learns to use it." Tempest gently took the object from her hands. "It is… beyond us. Provided we survive the next few thousand years… maybe we shall be able to understand it."

"And you say they created the Chaos Emeralds too?" Sally thought. "Tempest, how many have actually met these Lords of the Ice?"

"Very few." Tempest put the ring back on his finger. "They choose you, if you are worthy. You don't find them; they show themselves you. Ah… that reminds me!"

"You didn't leave the water running back at Knothole, did you?" Sally laughed. "…Did you?"

"No, of course not!" Tempest closed his eyes, and concentrated, 'Tails'

* * *

The bloody bullet hit the metal tray with a loud 'ting!' that filled the room. The flattened mushroom head of it cause it to roll back and forth in a lazy circle, bumping it into another of its kin. Yet another, third bullet also rested in the bloody tray.

"Source alive, Tails…"

"Come on, you'd think you'd been shot instead of me," Tails grumbled from where he sat, at the edge of a medical bed. Mina was with him, dressing the wound on his arm.

"Why can't you or Sonic be more careful?" she asked, knowing full well the answer. "What do you think Sally will say when she finds out you were shot, _three times_, today?"

"That'll depend on the information I wring out of our prisoners, won't it?"

Mina just shook her head.

"Anyway," Tails quickly changed the topic. He liked Mina, he did, but she had been developing something of a worry-wart streak. She just couldn't get it into her head that even the best of them got hurt sometimes in their line of work. It was the reason she had put aside her dream of becoming a singer and instead trained to help care for the wounded. Field doctors and nurses were more urgently needed than pop idols. Her own run in with a stray bullet had only reinforced that lesson.

"Did you bring it?" he asked.

"I …did," she admitted, reaching over to a nearby sink, next to which lay a small metal box. "But… BUT… I'd like to remind you that the additive use of chaos energy to augment healing has had a detrimental…"

"I know about the studies, Mina," Tails cut her off. "I co-authored half of them. Please. I need to get back to 100 percent as soon as possible. For the city."

"That old excuse…" she turned around, handing him the box. "For the City. For Knothole. For the Kingdom."

He scoffed, but not in an unfriendly way. "You make me sound like a broken record or something."

"Tails. No one doubts your commitment…"

"I should hope not. I've given everything I have to this fight…" he frowned at the thought. What memories did he have that didn't involve the endless war with Robotnick or his underlings? Only the ones where his enemy was Naugus, or Mogul. Opening the metal case, he reached in and retrieved a single power ring.

Focusing on it, it instantly vanished, absorbed into his system.

"Aaah!" He could feel the energy at work, knitting flesh together and filling him with power. It was just a shame they had such a limited supply of Power Rings now. Even among Chaos Adepts, few could metabolize chaos energy from Rings.

With enough chaos energy running through one's body, even the most terrible wounds could stabilize and heal. It had been a real life saver on more than a few missions, especially during the Death Egg incidents. Flexing his arms, he could feel the pain of his wounds diminish, though the blood staining his bandages was a reminder of his mortality, regardless of how much energy he stole to empower himself.

Then the euphoria wore off, combined with the thoughts of what was to come.

Seeing his expression, Mina sighed and sat down on another chair as she carefully removed her latex gloves. "So. Where are you going now?"

"Interrogation," Tails replied. She knew full well where he was headed next. It was why he had brought her to Knothole Emergency Management Center, instead of flying over to see her at the hospital proper. Why he always insisted on having her check on him when he was hurt, he wasn't sure. He'd had some recent intellectual and academic disagreements with Dr. Quack for some time since his return to Station Square, but it was probably no more complex than the fact that he felt comfortable around Mina. She was in Sonic's inner circle of friends, and he trusted her.

Not just with a surgical knife; he trusted her as someone to talk to.

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"It's… Fiona."

She nodded, but said nothing.

"You know, I really thought…" he winced. "After Scourge, after all that… that she would have learned. Maybe it was too much to hope she had changed her ways."

Mina gave him a sympathetic look, and he shared the basics of what had happened. It still hurt to think about Jet and the Rogues escaping, but it hurt just as much to think of Fiona, lying at the bottom of a lake. The more he thought about it, the more he talked about it, the more convinced he was that it had been a mistake to save her. But in that moment, he hadn't been thinking things through rationally.

"Do you still… have feelings for her?" Mina finally asked.

"I never even knew her, Mina. Not the **real** her…" He couldn't tell her about the android Fiona he had fallen in love with, those years ago. His techy background and return from Station Square had already led many to brand him as dangerous pro-Synthetic.

"I guess I've always cared for this image of her, this ideal I have in my head and can't get out," he cut off his rambling. "I think you know exactly how I feel."

"Love at first sight is hard to get over." Mina nodded ruefully; she still loved Sonic from afar, Tails knew. Her situation was like Amy's, except Mina had never let it consume and define her life. Maybe that was another reason why he enjoyed her company in times like this. It helped him with his own perspective.

"I'm going to break her," he finally said.

Mina reached out, laying a compassionate hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to do this. People will understand…"

"They'll understand that I put my own feelings before the good of the city. Before the good of the people!" Tails patted her hand, but brushed it off. "I have to do this. I have to be there when we make her talk. Her, and the other two."

By the expression on her face, he could guess what she wanted to say.

You shouldn't have to do this.

And she could probably tell what he left unsaid:

Because of who I am, I have to.

Hopping off the table and throwing on a shirt to cover the bruises on his chest and arms, Tails gave his favorite nurse a polite nod. It was time to get his hands dirty. He wasn't Sonic, and he sure as Hell wasn't Sally. No one gave half a rat's shit what he did. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that the two of them were gone. The King's Mercy was just an oxymoron these days, and Tails wasn't feeling particularly merciful himself at the moment.

As he stalked down the corridors, heading towards holding, he felt a tingle in the back of his mind. It was like someone winding the string of a guitar too bit too tightly. Tails tried to push it out, and it was gone… for a few seconds. Concerned, he focused on letting it in, and suddenly…

'Tails'

"Tempest?" Tails paused, and ducked into a nearby bathroom. Was that voice coming from his mind?! "Tempest?"

'It is' the voice continued 'Listen carefully, boy'

'How are you doing this?' Tails thought.

'Practice' Tempest answered. 'I'll explain it all in more detail in due time. Now listen. I won't be getting back today. I trust you've kept your honor since this morning'

'You can't see my eyes' Tails thought back. 'How can you know what I have or have not done?'

'I trust you, boy' the disembodied voice continued.

Tails almost laughed. Almost. 'Actually, an emergency came up. Something I just couldn't let go. Work related'

Tempest paused. 'I see. Well, it couldn't be helped, I suppose'

Tails growled silently. 'What's keeping you anyway? You and Sally are late. You two aren't…?'

'Extenuating circumstances. Your Princess is nearby, safe and sound'

'Tempest… this telepathy… I've seen something similar before, but how are you doing it? I need to know'

'Ah' Tempest started to fade. 'Well, I had planned to teach you more later. The essence of it is that you need an emotional bond with another being. The link is made through that shared experience'

'Tempest?' Tails thought, but got no response. He must be gone already. But at least he'd gotten some information out of it. 'Shared experience' was it? Tails clutched a fist, his body still charged with Chaos Energy.

'How far are you willing to go?' a voice asked. Perhaps it was his conscience.

'Quiet you!' he scolded it. 'You got me into this mess in the first place!'

'Wait. What? Me? I'm innocent!'

'That's what they all say.'

'Come now. Really… are you actually going to try this? Think about who you're emulating.'

'Remember who I've been emulating half my life. It isn't just Sonic. It's that fat bastard, too. So what if I take a page out of that black freak's playbook and get creative with Chaos Control?'

His mind was decided long before he actually entered the oversight room adjacent to where Fiona was being held. She was tough; there was no doubt about that. Already awake and alert and even on her feet, bandages and all, the villainous vixen was currently sitting defiantly in a chair, verbally abusing the interrogator sent to start the preliminary work. She was uncooperative as usual; this wasn't her first time being interrogated, and she knew the ropes as well as anyone.

She had been a Freedom Fighter for a while, after all.

Tails took a moment to look her over, before ordering the room cleared. There were the usual protests, but despite his youth, Tails was a senior ranking Freedom Fighter, a personal _cavalier_ of the King himself, and a high ranking military officer. He also happened to be the one Mobian who had brought in their suspects today, since the others had evaded the attack helicopters. Damn them. He switched off the cameras and microphones, and headed through the door into the interrogation room itself.

"Out," he ordered. The weasel running the op bit back a complaint, nodded, and left, leaving the two foxes alone.

"Tails," Fiona said with a smile. "I never thanked you for saving me."

"And you never will." He knew.

"Aaa! You noticed!" Her smile widened as she laughed. She had a beautiful voice, too.

"I've heard you want immunity in exchange for telling us what we want to know," he skipped the banter and got right to business.

"Signed by the King and confirmed by my lawyer. Who I haven't gotten to rap with yet, by the way," she crossed her legs and assumed an impatient pose. "You might want to get working on that."

He nodded slowly in apparent agreement, walking around behind her, before abruptly grabbing the back of her chair and throwing it to the floor. Fiona fell back with it, yelping as the back of her head hit the floor. Holding her head, she cursed and glared up at him.

"What the Hell!?"

Tails cocked his head. "You think I saved you because I still care about you?"

Her eyes narrowed. "You do."

"You're sick," Tails kept his voice as calm and detached as possible, "You aren't going to jail this time. I'm going to personally see to it that they ship you off to an asylum. An asylum you'll never… **ever**… get out of. You're going to be staring at padded walls for the rest of your life."

She laughed smugly. "I don't _believe_ you…_Tails_…"

"Believe whatever you want." He nudged her out of the knocked over chair, bent over, and pulled her into the middle of the room by her handcuffs.

"I didn't know you were this kinky, Tails! Scourge and I used to role play like this, too. Are you the bad cop this time?"

The thought of it made Tails sneer in disgust.

"Go ahead and hit me! Hit me!" Fiona urged him on. "Come on! Do it! Quit being such a fucking pussy!"

He rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. "I missed you, too, Fiona…"

He stood over her, and then fell to his knees, straddling her. She bucked against him, laughing all the while, but he held her down with one hand.

"Eight people broke into a secure facility this morning. You happen to be one of them. Nack and Nic are two others, and I know all about the Babylon Rogues. Who are the two I don't know?"

Fiona just laughed.

He leaned in closer. "Answer me."

"I don't _want_ to."

She bucked against him again, harder this time, as she squirmed. His breath quickened as he felt her against him. There was no doubt that part of the infatuation he'd had with her in the past was physical, even if he'd tried to keep such impure thoughts out of his head. Vixens were often particularly attractive, and Fiona had the body of an athlete and a model. She laughed breathily again as she rubbed up against him, just a second before hitting him square in the face with her handcuffed fists.

She was strong, too.

"You're harder than I thought you'd be, Tailssy… I guess you aren't the little kid you used to be…"

Spitting a wad of blood from his split lip, he ignored her and concentrated energy into his right hand. He'd seen Shadow do this before, and Mogul, too. Telepathic contact wasn't unheard of among certain circles. This was his first time, but he had a good idea of the mechanics involved. And if it failed, he's just go back to the old school: drugs, sensory depravation, and the tender hands of professionals who had been honing their craft since the Great War.

"You want me, don't you?" Fiona looked up at him with savage, hungry eyes. "Then do it. Right here. You turned off the cameras, didn't you? Do it!"

His fingers curled, resisting the urge to form a fist.

"Remember when I used to walk by your hut with Sonic. Do you remember that time you saw us making out under that tree?" She leaned up, just barely grazing his chest with hers. "And you watched? I saw you… and then I…"

His hand slammed into her forehead, crackles of chaos energy arcing up and into her hair. She laughed again, and in his inattention, never saw her fingers as she reached up and raked his face with her nails. Sneering, he grabbed her handcuffs with his free hand and held her arms down.

_ "Why… why are you like this?"_

_ "Don't you get it? I like being bad!"_

Tails caught his breath. "Who were you working for?"

She made another breathy moan. "Scourge…!"

"Scourge is DEAD!" Tails roared. "Who. Are. You. Working. For."

Her eyes rolled, and he could feel her mind opening up. Her legs wrapped around one of his, and he winced at the pressure as she twisted, trying to break his femur. She laughed again, licking her lips. Then another crackle of Chaos Energy shot into her temple, momentarily spiking up her hair.

"Who are you working for, Fiona?" he asked again, feeling certain that he'd finally gotten through. "Who?"

"J… Jet…" she breathily replied. "Jet hired me. Needed… more men… Nic and I needed money…"

"You betrayed your people… your country…"

"Not my people…" she spat out, and a sob cut in between pained laughs. "Not mine… I… I…"

"They **are** your people."

"Not mine." She chuckled again as she stared up at him, light blue eyes glazed over. "Not yours, either. You don't know… just how little… people even think about you…"

He steeled his features. He wouldn't let her mind games get to him, not when he was the one supposed to be invading her thoughts.

"What was Jet after?"

"Jet…" She weakly tried to shake her head. "Jet was… he wanted…they wanted him to get… the… the locations…"

"They're after the Chaos Emeralds, aren't they?"

"No. Yes… and something else… an artifact… a scepter…"

"Who is Jet working for?"

"I heard him… listened in… he and that cat…"

Tails eyebrows perked up at this. She had to mean the feline rider from before.

"Order from… Meph… Mephiles…"

"Who is this feline? And who is Mephiles?"

"Only called her 'B.' No names. Never… worked with her before… don't know who Mephiles… is…"

Finally, her breathing heavy, Fiona stopped struggling under him. Still straddling her and holding her down, Tails processed what he'd heard, and what he'd felt. Then, looking down at her, he noticed the wound on her side had reopened. There was blood on the floor, and blood on his knees. Her blushing carmine fur was matted and soaked with sweat, her darker auburn hair disheveled and strewn about beneath her in every direction. Even her seemingly out of place hair tie, her yellow ribbon, lay in a tangled mess.

Releasing her handcuffs, he reeled back slightly, breaking his hand's contact with her forehead. He'd gotten what he'd wanted out of her; so why was he struck by this sudden regret for what he'd done? They'd have wrung the information out of her somehow anyway. But this… was…

Beneath him, Fiona reached up, and gently probed the bullet wound in his left arm. It stung just enough to bring him back from his thoughts.

"Mine…" she whispered, a beautiful smile on her face. She poked the wound harder, drawing blood. "Mine."

"You were aiming for my chest," he remembered the shot. And that he had moved at the last possible second.

"I was aiming for your heart…" she seemed to come back to herself, and despite her exhaustion, she managed a small laugh. "I'm so glad… I could leave you with this scar…"

For just a moment, grief crossed her features.

"You never left me with anything… until now…"

He grabbed her hand before she jabbed her finger deeper into his flesh. "Why do you do this, Fiona?"

"Because I like it…" she admitted, totally honest. "Because I don't care, and neither should you."

It was just the sort of thing he'd expected to hear; she never changed. "Where are they going? The Rogues, and those two others?"

Fiona pulled his hand to her face, and nuzzled it. "I'll tell you. Just this once... Because you've been so much fun… Because it felt like I was with _him_ again."

* * *


	10. Rogues iii

Sonic was back.

Tails met him when he came back in after racing around trying to find Sally. Quick as he could, the two tailed fox covered his wounds and bandages, cleaned his face and fur, and practiced his expressions. He knew the importance of appearances, and there was no need for Sonic to get involved in things like this. He was the Hero of Mobius, and everyone needed him cheerful, happy, and fighting the Good Fight against Robotnick.

"Sonic!" he called, waving conspicuously.

"Hey there, little bro!" Sonic zipped to a stop, as he always did, in the old part of town near the Ring Pool. Maybe it was habit, maybe it was a conscious desire not to be mobbed by adoring fans, but he usually came to the same spot every time. Tails was there, waiting. Sonic playfully ruffled the fox's hair in greeting.

"I don't suppose you've heard word one from Sal, huh?"

"I wouldn't worry about it. We never got an emergency signal from her transponder, and she was with Tempest." Tails started back to the old quarter, and Sonic immediately took a few steps ahead, but kept the same casual pace.

"Yeah, well, that ain't exactly reassuring…"

"Tempest would never let anything happen to her." Tails could sense Sonic's apprehension, and felt a surge of annoyance at how trivial is really was compared to everything that had happened today. That Sonic had been racing around without thinking, worried that some other guy was after his girl, despite all the times Sonic himself had picked up with other girls… but then, what was just how Sonic was, wasn't it? Deep thought and planning had never been his forte.

It was best to nip this whole mess in the bud.

"Is that so?" Sonic started.

"Sonic, Tempest respects Sally." Tails put on his best friendly-but-serious voice. It was one Sonic knew, and responded to with equal weight. "But that's all. There's no way he'd try and take her from you."

"But…" Sonic bit his lip, and scoffed. "Not that I'm worried or nothing! But what makes you so sure?"

"Kitsune don't mix with other races," Tails explained; it was best to be as clear and forthright as possible. "They're like overlanders or humans. If some human started to get friendly with Sally, would you suspect he was trying to get into her pants?"

"She doesn't wear pants."

"You know what I mean."

"The humans see us as talking animals. We were treated ok, because we saved the city. But did you ever have any human girls chasing after you?"

Sonic thought back, and shook his head.

"Did any even talk to you, aside from GUN types and a couple star-eyed children?"

Again, Sonic shook his head. He could see what Tails meant.

"They're actually like that?" he asked, finding it hard to believe that there were Mobians more xenophobic than even the echidna. "These Kitsune?"

"Worse, actually," Tails corrected his old friend and mentor with a light chuckle. "One Clan of Kitsune even practices ritual cannibalism as a right of passage. Though they don't see it that way, since to them, regular Mobians are just animals."

Sonic actually turned his nose up in disgust. It was the first time Tails remembered seeing such a strong reaction out of the hedgehog.

"Still…" Sonic persisted. "Tempest seems… kinda interested in her. And I think Sal likes him a bit, too."

"Tempest's like a computer. He'll do what he's programmed to do," Tails explained. "And he's programmed to not mix with other races. Sally, though. Well, maybe that's something you should look into. You haven't exactly been spending a lot of time with her…"

"I'm a busy guy, you know."

"I know." Tails knew full well that Sonic's version of busy mostly meant busy playing games and goofing off. But again, it was his casualness, his earthiness and honesty, that people loved about him. He wasn't some aloof genius in a lab, or a Princess in a castle.

"I guess… I gotta talk to her…"

"I'm sure things will work out," Tails reassured him. "They always do!"

Sonic smirked.

He missed Tails slight frown.

"So!" Sonic nudged him as they walked. "Bunnie's sister or cousin or something is in town! I met her yesterday. A real cutie, and your age, too…"

"Are you seriously trying to hook me up with her?" Tails asked, eyes half lidded. Like he needed that kind of mess in his life right now. And besides, Sonic was like one of the five worst match makers on the planet, right next to Knuckles and Vector. Better to go another round with the Babylon Rogues than one of their 'blind date' schemes. And 'his age' – what did _that_ mean?

"Wait," Tails finally put two and two together. "Is she a Freedom Fighter?"

"Yeah!" Sonic nodded, remembering. "I think so."

"And you met her, how?"

"Bunnie introduced her yesterday. We all met her…" Sonic hesitated. "I guess you were working."

Tails thought about it. "Cream, huh?"

"That's her. What do you think? Cute?"

He had been attracted to her, but all that stuff with Fiona… his libido wasn't exactly working on eight cylinders anymore. It didn't help that, as sick as the vixen obviously was in the head, an animal part of himself really had wanted to give in to her, right then and there. Hell, a part of him still wanted to. It was sobering and off putting to think that the Turan'ha had muddled his normally rational thought processes so thoroughly.

"No complaints on the looks department," Tails replied. "But it's been a long damn day. You have no idea…"

Sonic shrugged. "Want to get the group together? Hit a bar or a club?"

That did sound better.

"Alright," Tails relented. He could use a drink. "Sure, why not?"

"Ha Ha!" Sonic pumped his fists and gave Tails another friendly jab. "Leave it to me! We'll hit that new place that opened last week!"

"Outside town? Isn't that a lot of trouble?"

"It'll be cool!" Sonic had obviously just been waiting for an excuse to hit a new night club. "Trust me! Just get our rides ready! I don't wanna be carrying drunk people in my arms all the way back!"

Tails watched him go, and couldn't help but smile.

It wasn't just Mobius that needed its carefree hedgehog Hero.

* * *

The suburbs of Robotropolis.

A lifetime ago, they had been the playgrounds for the noblesse: venues to display their wealth and compete in extravagance. Grand palaces and luxurious lawns stretched for acres, as Earls vied to outdo robber barons in their displays of ill gotten wealth. Many had not survived the purges soon after the war stalled. Fewer had survived the tumult of the losing years, or the 'Sad Time' as some grizzled veterans called it. Those few who clung on fell on the darkest of nights, when Robotnick seized power.

Now their monuments to wealth and extravagance rotted on the vine.

The suburbs, also called "The Ring" were a graveyard of the rich and famous. There was little here of worth for the Eggman, and as such, he left it mostly alone, preferring to fortify his great base of Robotropolis, the former Mobian capital of Mobotropolis. Freedom Fighters crawled through the ruins of the Ring, among the overgrown gardens and laurel mazes, and in the many fallout shelters and bomb blasted mansions. In addition to these patriots, more dubious sorts also made a living: smugglers, raiders, opportunists and entrepreneurs.

In The Ring, there were no laws. No Eggman, no King, no cops, no soldiers. The Freedom Fighters mostly kept to their secretive selves, and the SWATbots never strayed from their routes. It was a helluva place, if you weren't afraid of getting mugged and dumped in a ditch. Or if you could afford the protection. Accordingly, the black market ran rampant, and one could find a seller for most anything, if you had the credits and the initiative to know who to talk to.

It may have been midnight, but they heard their location almost before they saw it. Three bikes slowed to a stop near a fence topped by barbed wire. Beyond lay the converted hulk of an old mansion, done over in neon and strobe lights. The building put out a constant and incessant beat. It was just the sort of club music Sonic loved: electric trance and industrial; repetitive and loud. More than once, the hedgehog had actually gone an entire mission just listening to the stuff on a portable player, to the expense of all the other sophisticated gear Tails had built for him over the years.

A battery of guards stood out front, managing the line of hopefuls.

Sonic brought his bike around first, kicking the stand out and using his naked thumbprint to engage the lock. Tails had built the bikes for everyone in the core Freedom Fighters, and more than a few for other resistance cells as well. He even handled the custom colors with a certain personal touch: Sonic's was blue and white and black, while his a preferred gold, black, and blue. Bunnie's was gunmetal gray with some red. They were ample transportation for two people, one driving and the other holding on for dear life, with the bonus of being armed to the teeth and armored like a light tank.

Sonic had been kind enough to take Mina with him; her blushing all the way and offering excuses for coming, even though she had an ostensible boyfriend (one none of them had actually met). Bunnie had come, bringing Cream with her (Tails was only half surprised by that – no doubt more of Sonic's subtle matchmaking). Rush hadn't been able to make it, which meant Tails had a different passenger… he parked his bike, and slipped off. A second later, Rotor's feet hit the ground as he slid off the passenger's seat.

What was left of the poor fox's libido had quickly died having Rotor clinging to him on the ride over (not that Rush, who he found rather annoying, would have been any better). On the other hand, they had shared an interesting conversation that had given him some ideas for upgrades to the vehicles themselves… including a very promising increase in efficiency for the electric motor and hydrogen engine. They were a full nine months old, after all.

"So!" the walrus remarked, taking a look at their destination. "This is the 'Breeding Ground' I've heard about. Quite a crowd out here."

"Watch our great leader get us in," Tails joked.

As usual, Sonic took the lead once they'd locked their vehicles and headed towards the club. He wore his usual: which was to say, nothing. Overlander fashion was in at present, not that he paid it any mind. Rotor had thrown on a shirt of his own, and Tails did likewise (though only to cover up the evidence of his earlier activities that day). It was easy for males: a shirt and a belt of some sort were the current fashion. The females had to put more effort into it. Mina wore her usual top and skirt, in black and purple; Bunnie wore a more mature looking dress, while Cream stuck to jeans, a blue top, and a vest. Tails also noticed what could only be a concealed knife under that same Sally-inspired vest of hers.

It was a nice touch.

"Where are we?" she asked. Aside from the club itself, the place was pretty run down, and for the most part abandoned. Nearby, the broken bodies of some old Swatbots littered the street. Cream was obviously a little apprehensive about the currently lacking security arrangements, and it was overriding her lingering hero worship for all the original Freedom Fighters around her.

"The edge of Robotropolis." Tails pointed to an old building. "I think this whole area used to belong to the Duke of Andopolis."

"What if Swatbots show up?"

"Hey!" Sonic interrupted. "Unless like an army of them shows up, we pretty much the last people who need to worry. Tails, how many SWATbots have you destroyed in one night?"

"I think my best was two hundred and sixty four." He smiled at the memory. "That was a long night, and I did use a lot of high explosives."

"And I'm Sonic. The Hedgehog? Maybe you've heard of me?" He laughed and motioned for them to follow. "Come on and quit worryin'!"

'Cocky as always,' Tails couldn't help but think.

Sonic walked right past the line of well dressed (and/or desperate) Mobians hoping to get inside, and up to one of the bouncers. Both were ursines from the great northwest: big fellows, twice the size of even an overlander. Both wore identical muscle shirts and professional black pants and shades. Sonic pointed to one and winked, and they immediately stepped aside and let him in. There was only one way into the club, short of jumping the barbed wire, and as they walked in, Sonic hardly seemed to even notice the envious and in some cases, angry, stares of less fortunate and famous patrons.

Tails momentarily wondered if he could have gotten in if he had come alone.

Certainly not so easily.

The doors to the Breeding Ground swung open, and the small group walked inside. The entire place was wild with teenage animals… of all species and sexes. Off to the right, a band was playing, while off to the left were two smaller rooms, a tattoo parlor, a boxing theatre, and a crowded bar. There was smoke in the air, too. Tobacco had had a popular resurgence during the war years, when it had been transplanted from plantations in Cat Country. Tails had never found the acidic smell pleasant, but not it assailed his sensitive nose enough to make him wince.

Inside, most of the staff and security seemed to be ethically uniform: raccoons, along with a few weasels. Looking around the booths and the dance floor for anything resembling a familiar face, he came back disappointed. Eyes lingering on one booth in particular, he saw a pale haired feline with a few companions, talking among themselves. For just a moment, she glanced over in his direction, and he entertained the thought that she was the cat who had gotten away before. But the chances of that being the case were… not statistically significant.

"Gah… I do need a drink…" he muttered.

Sonic seemed to have the same idea. "You girls find a nice place. We'll get the drinks."

"You have a running tab here, don't you?" Rotor asked, deadpan.

"If by free drinksies you mean a tab, then yes!" Sonic clapped his old friend on the back. "Get the girls' orders, Tails!"

The fox nodded in silent acquiescence.

Sonic had a terrible memory for little things like this anyway. Inevitably he'd mess up the order but smooth it over with a confident smile and a joke. Tails rather envied the charm Sonic seemed able to turn on at will. But then, wasn't that what people called natural charisma?

"Over there ok?" he pointed to an empty booth a short distance from the floor. The girls seemed happy enough with it, and he listened as they told him what to get. He nodded, happy to get things right the first time and not have to talk his way out of situations. At the same time, he found his eyes wandering over to where he had seen that pale feline. Was he growing paranoid, or…?

No.

'Just relax,' he scolded himself. 'That's why you came here after all.'

Silently heading towards where Sonic and Rotor were already chatting with the bartender, Tails tried to put his work out of his mind. The two older Mobians already had shots in hand, and when Tails came up, Sonic slid one over the hardwood. Tails took it with a grateful nod, and placed the girls' orders in one go. The bartenders were both exotic types: the male who took the order was a kangaroo, a breed rarely found outside of Downunda. To Tails consternation, the mobian reminded him of Walt Wallabee, from the now deceased Downunda FF. He silently cursed Shadow for killing them in cold blood, all those months ago. The other bartender was an echidna girl with blue hair.

Coloring aside, she actually sort of reminded him of Julie-Su.

"Rough day?" she asked.

"You have no idea!" he replied, and turned to Sonic and Rotor who were holding their shots up. He never heard the bartender whisper that maybe, yes, she did have some idea.

Instead, the three males toasted, and tossed back.

Rotor let out a deep breath and pounded the counter heartily. Sonic just puckered his lips. Tails coughed, clearing his throat. Sonic ordered one more quick round, and this time they toasted to something for real. Apparently Rotor had mentioned some of Tails' little run in earlier in the day, and Sonic had decided to toast the evening to his "little buddy kicking ass." After which Sonic had announced his intention to stick around, specifically to show Jet "just who was the fastest thing around."

At least that GEAR he'd built Sonic would be taken out of storage again.

They then went back to business:

"Ok!" Sonic put his shot back on the countertop with a clang. "We've got two single ladies out there. I'll run interference for you guys, so you can feel free to thank me in advance!"

Rotor and Tails both laughed, and the latter had to admit that a little alcohol in his system was helping him loosen up.

"Mina says she's got a boyfriend, you know," Tails reminded them.

"You ever meet this mysterious boyfriend of hers?" Sonic replied, rolling his eyes. "Come on! And what's his name? Ash? What kind of name is Ash? Sounds like some character in a movie."

Rotor barked out another laugh. "Says the guy named Sonic."

"Hey!"

Sonic grinned slyly. "Besides, this so called 'Ash' isn't around now, now is he?"

Tails reached over to give the hedgehog a shove. "Weren't you just sweating bullets earlier about Sally hooking up with someone when you weren't around…?'

"That's different!" Sonic waved his hand dismissively.

"Whatever," Tails said, shaking his head. "Free for all?"

"Free for all," Rotor agreed.

"Free for all is just codeword for cock blocking," Sonic spoke up, a little too loudly. "Well, don't look at me! I'm chaste tonight… at least till Sal gets back…"

"Like I need the picture of you two knocking boots in my head… Thanks a lot for that." Tails nodded to the bartender as the girls' drinks came, just a little discretely late. Sonic just laughed.

The rest of evening grew progressively less inhibited. The girls had been chatting, of course, and had (also of course) immediately changed the subject when the guys got back. At first, Tails watched Sonic and Bunnie and Rotor carefully: he hadn't really spent time with any of them like this until after he came back from Station Square. That trip had changed everything, in so many ways. No one was sure how old he really was, and when he basically took over all the logistics and weapons procurement for the entire movement, it had been all too natural to just accept him as an undersized adult.

It helped that Mobians were less hung up about age and maturity than the longer lived humans and overlanders. Sonic and Bunnie flirted harmlessly, and Rotor withdrew bit by bit, growing shyer the more he drank. And Rotor could probably outdrink any four of them put together, so that said something. Mina quickly lost herself daydreaming about Sonic and trying to get in on his conversations as much as mobianly possible. Sonic didn't seem to mind, at least not as much as he did when Amy rudely interjected herself at the worst possible moments.

'Amy…' he frowned at the name. She wasn't here, of course. Sonic simply hadn't invited her. But he had told her, back then, too, that Sonic hadn't felt about her that way. That she tended to annoy him. That… well, he had said a lot of things. It was no surprise she had slapped him and tried to mallet him half to death.

So he talked to Cream.

She was smarter than he'd originally thought. She wasn't just a Freedom Fighter with a good record. She was studying, too, and she had thoughts about what to do with herself when the war was over. It was really more than he had – he'd always expected to just fade away, let others pick up where he left off, and devote his life to tinkering. She was very girlish in a lot of ways: she loved small animals (he was fond of flickies himself), and fascinated by the exotic. By the time she asked him about his tails, he was lucid enough to hardly feel defensive about it. After all, he wasn't a freak anymore, or a mutant… there was a whole race just like him.

He was… normal. In a way.

Then Sonic and Bunnie headed to the dance floor. No sooner had they done so than he saw Cream blush and he took the opportunity to stare at his drink. Dancing drew attention, and he generally preferred to work out of the limelight, where he didn't belong. Then he felt someone take his hand, and he saw Mina getting up and heading over to the floor.

"Come on…" She was blushing a bit herself, though he was sure she just wanted to stick close to Sonic. Or maybe just use his fox sidekick as a proxy. But he liked Mina; she was a good friend, so even if she did, it didn't matter.

So they danced.

The music had a good beat, one he could finally feel and get into, and – yes – Mina was easy on the eyes, too. She put his hands on her hips, and a flash of Fiona earlier in the day came and went, but didn't linger. Swaying, she moved with practiced grace. Compared to her, he was clumsy and nervous, with little experience following or keeping a beat. They kept reasonably near Sonic and Bunnie, who were dancing more loosely and with less inhibition.

'No wonder Antoine refused to come…' Tails thought to himself, watching the two of them. 'No amount of alcohol would get him to come out and dance like that to music like this.'

He noticed Mina watching them too.

Decision made, he maneuvered the two of them over, and picking a little pause in the music, pulled a switcheroo. Sonic didn't seem to mind, and he grabbed Mina's hand and pulled her up next to him. There was a small crowd all around the Hero of Mobius, basking in the glow of his company. Tails pulled Bunnie back a bit, and shrugged a silent apology.

She just leaned over and whispered in his ear, "You're too sweet for words sometimes, sugah."

"Certain parties would disagree…" he whispered back, and they danced together for a while, letting Mina and Sonic enjoy themselves. It was definitely a little awkward dancing close to her, though, so after a little while Bunnie held up her hands as she danced, swaying back and forth. He held his up, too, remembering how she'd taught him to dance, years ago.

"Watch my hands and shoulders, and move back and forth…" was what she had said. It was a good memory. One he cherished.

They laughed and clasped hands, swinging back and forth, much to the annoyance of the other people nearby. It was silly, and totally off the beat, but they were laughing and having fun, and that was all that mattered.

"You know," she said, leaning in so he could hear her. "Cream… really likes you, I think."

"I'm not myself right now…" he tried to say, but couldn't quite think of how to phrase it. "Getting close to someone, right now, I… I don't know…"

"Tails, let me tell ya something." She leaned in closer. "Ya gotta open yourself up to someone eventually. There's nothing like having someone you can confide in. Someone you can lower your guard around."

It was good advice, but…

"A- hey…" Rotor jumped in, offering Bunnie his hand. Tails smiled at his old friends, and let them go. Thinking about it, if not totally clearly, he saw Cream nursing her drink. He also glanced over at the booth from before, where he'd seen that feline and her friends. But they were gone.

No matter. He'd catch the guilty parties eventually.

"Dance?" he asked, holding out his hand to the girl.

"I... I don't know…" she mumbled.

But she took his hand anyway.

* * *

Outside, two figures slowly walked away from the club. "Did he see us?"

"I'm sure of it," the other replied. "Don't worry. We're fine."

"The Trigger was in there, too."

"I saw him. It was hard not to."

"So what do we do?"

"We follow the plan. Mephiles has gotten us this far, hasn't he?"

"I guess… but I don't like working with these people. They're not the types we should be hanging around with…"

"I'm not happy about it either. But if things work out like they should, it'll all be worth it."

"I hope you're right, Blaze."

The lilac colored feline smirked. "I usually am."

* * *

The Dead Springs weren't quite as dead as the name implied.

Staring up at the stars, Tempest sighed. They were so familiar, but still different. And _vive la difference_ wasn't a phrase that existed in the Kitsune vernacular. Nothing was more welcome to a Kitsune than the routine, the dogmatic, and the traditional. It was how they had always been, and would always be. He could see now why so many adventuresome young male Kitsune turned back when they strayed south, looking for tales to tell over the fire.

The southlands had ways of making you… uncomfortable and confused.

Sighing, he tilted his head to see where Sally lay, asleep. She initially had lay down near to him for the warmth and company, but hadn't fallen asleep until he had finally let her move up close to him, close enough that his mere presence kept her comfortably warm.

"You'd never survive up north," he spoke softly, and lifted his arm to hold his head up. It was true. But then, it probably wouldn't have just been the weather that threatened her life where he came from. "But you'd probably like to see it, wouldn't you? The Northern Lights…you'd probably even try and find the Lords of the Ice… is this… this miracle deroboticizer so important to you?"

He sighed.

Taking a deep breath, he picked up her scent… just like before.

An Acorn. There was no denying it… she was Royalty… but like no southern royalty he had ever heard of. They were supposed to be deceitful and avaricious, while this female seemed to be both frank and humble within her station. There was something else, too. Tempest trusted his nose with his life, as all Kitsune did, and he still smelt that anomaly with her, inside her. She was sure she had no vulpine blood on her, but what if she had never been told about it? Her mother was supposedly half chipmunk half squirrel, and of course, her father was 100 Acorn born and bred. She certainly didn't have any real vulpine features.

Weak little clawless hands…

Small ears, and a weak nose…

A tiny doe-like tail…

"She is Prey!" A voice like his father's echoed in his mind. Breaking his thoughts, Sally mumbled something and curled up against him, before settling back into her sleep.

"A true Kitsune would slay her." An ancient voice - that of his grandfather - chided. "Take her throat, Tempest. Take her throat or take her hand. If you dare."

"Silence…" Tempest thought, warning his ancestors. The lingering quasi-personalities of his father and grandfather dissipated, leaving only their memories. He was surprised his grandfather was still understandable, given that he had been killed by his son - Tempest's father - so long ago. Still, both were long dead and their memories were now his by right of combat.

In a twisted way, Tempest had always pitied the Wizened Elders - those few ancient Kitsune who were too strong for their own bloodlines, and whose heirs never grew worthy of taking their lives. With centuries of experience and knowledge, they were respected for their power and wisdom, and pitied for they were the last of their blood. An Elder could have an Heir, but he would never survive through him. Instead, the young kitsune would have to start the cycle anew, leaving his father to carry the burden of generations. Yes: Tempest found he pitied them more than anything.

Having more memories of other's lives than one's own must surely be maddening…

* * *

Tails never opened his eyes, but he knew when they had arrived.

Secretly, he was a little relieved they had made it back, but outwardly, he kept cool. So, not moving from his position, eyes closed and cross-legged in front of the Ring Pool, Tails only sighed. He raised one hand in greeting. "Tempest… Princess Sally."

"Good to see you, too, boy," Tempest said, approaching slowly. "Are those bags under your eyes?"

"Princess?" Sally walked up to him with a bit more spring in her step. "What happened to Aunt Sally?"

Tails shrugged, but kept his eyes closed. "That one's getting old."

"The boy's needs a good beating." Tempest interjected and then added, "I'll get to that later."

"I also want to learn more about that telepathy thing," Tails said, eagerness entering his voice. "I mean… it was pretty kick ass. And it's potentially very… useful."

"Tails," Sally began to say. "I'm going to be training you this morning... And how long were you up last night?"

"Until about four hours ago," he answered, and rolled his eyes at her exasperated expression. "Yes, I know: I'm terrible. Blame Sonic."

"I will!"

"Excellent…" Tails cupped his fingers and laughed maniacally. Tempest just raised an eyebrow.

"Anyway," Tails turned serious again. "Why are you training me? Haven't you been doing that for like the last five years?"

Sally ignored the quip. "Tempest didn't get any sleep last night."

"That so?" Tails snickered, and then quickly stopped. "I mean: poor guy."

"Tails!" Sally playfully slapped the back of his head. "What are you thinking?"

Tails thought about what he was thinking before answering. "You really wouldn't want to know. …Aunt Sally."

"Do beat some sense into him before I wake up, Princess." Tempest bowed his head ever so slightly, and took his leave. Walking away, he also said, "And do find out where he went last night. The things I smell on him… I don't even know where to begin!"

"And what are those smells, hmm?" Sally asked Tails as Tempest walked off to his hut.

The fox boy stifled a laugh. "Sonic could tell you better than me. Ah… after his hangover subsides."

"I'll be sure to ask him about it… later." She promised, hands on her hips. Then she smiled, mischievously. "Did you meet anyone?"

"Seriously?" Tails finally asked, half shocked.

Sally winked conspiratorially. "Was she pretty?"

Tails stiffened. "I can't believe you're even asking me this! What kind of question is that?!"

"The kind of question I felt like asking."

"Yeah… they were _all_ pretty hot." Tails smiled at the thought. "Especially Aunt Bunnie!"

"Ah!"

"See what you get for asking?" He hid his face in his hand as she sat down next to him. "What does it matter, anyway? I thought you were going to train me… in what, who even knows."

"You don't want to talk with your Aunt Sally about your new girlfriend?"

"Oh, by all means! We can have our hair done while we gossip!" Tails' blurted out with about as much disrespect as he'd ever shown her. He was about to continue along that same vein, when for no real reason he sniffed the air, and smelled Tempest's scent all over her.

"Woah! Where the Hell have you two been?"

"What?" Sally looked down, not understanding his question. "I'm perfectly clean."

"No… I mean… where have you and Tempest been… together?" Tails corrected.

"Oh…" Sally responded. "Where… do you think?"

"I can smell." Tails pointed to his nose. "Him all over you, quite distinctly."

"Oh, Tails…" She placed a hand on his shoulder, "It was cold; so I slept next to him. That's it."

"Uh huh. What about…" Tails paused. "Sonic?"

"What about Sonic?" Sally frowned.

"I dunno…" Tails looked down at his feet. "I mean… you and Tempest aren't…?

"Tails," Sally finally said. "Nothing else happened."

Good. Really, Sally had been the only unknown in his conversation with Sonic before. Tempest would never get over his prejudices, Tails had already determined that. But Sally was less… deeply engrained in her preferences and actions.

"You don't have feelings for him, then? Tempest, I mean."

"I don't know." Sally looked up into the morning sky. "It's hard to explain."

"It shouldn't be a difficult thing to determine." Tails made it sound almost insulting. He really hadn't meant to, but memories of past 'loves' had soured him on the whole concept, and he was feeling bitter about it. "How do you feel?"

"I feel like your delving a bit too deeply into my personal life," Sally ended that topic then and there. "500 push ups!"

"But _Aunt Sally_…." Tails whined, but finally rolled his eyes, mock saluted, and went to work. "Ok… ok… You're the boss… Which reminds me. We need to talk about work, too."

She nodded. "Work later."

"Yeah."

Hours later, Tails finally got to the day's exercise he was looking forward to. It wasn't like he had not enjoyed having Sally oversee his morning regimen – in fact, it had been a nice change of pace from having Tempest organize things, but there was nothing to be learned from it, and the young Kitsune craved knowledge. And, he felt quite comfortable admitting to himself, he craved a measure of power. It was only natural, really. His strength was the strength of the Kingdom, of the Cause, and by extension: that of the people.

**Stronger**.

Next time, he wouldn't hesitate or fail!

* * *

Bunnie leaned against the side of her hut. She'd meant to talk more about the security operations Tails had put in motion, but hadn't wanted to interrupt the morning exercises. Tails seemed remarkably alert, given the night before. As for herself, the southern belle had few problems with alcohol. Having an artificial 'super-liver' helped with that. But she'd expected Tails to be asleep, nursing a splitting headache.

Instead, he had been up and waiting when Sally returned, and now the two of them were training. It reminded Bunnie of the old days, before Sonic and Tails had left for Station Square. Though, at that time, Sally's lessons had been primarily academic. Less so, this time around, and unless she was mistaken, the door seemed to swing both ways. More than a few times, it definitely looked like Sally was picking up something from the young fox.

"They're still at it, huh?"

Bunnie didn't need to turn her head to know Cream was to her right, leaning against the wall. The younger girl had come and gone, but had probably been around for a minute or two before actually speaking.

"Those two… must be pretty close…" she guessed. Accurately.

"Mmm," Bunnie made a soft sound. "Sonic and Tails have had a few fall outs before, but he and Sally have always been like this. When he was little, he'd do anything to get her approval."

Cream thought carefully, before asking, "And now?"

That, Bunnie also had to think about.

"Probably the same." The older female closed her eyes. "Though…"

Cream let her phrase her thoughts.

"Though… lately, they've had some disagreements. About the war. But I know Tails just wants to do what he can to help."

"Most of the mobians in my unit think he's a human lover."

"Cream!" Bunnie snapped. "Language!"

"Is he?" she asked, sharply.

Bunnie pursed her lips, and looked over where Sally and Tails were talking and laughing.

"He's…" she searched for the word. "Progressive. You know, there are good humans, too. It isn't fair to judge them by the actions of a few."

Next to her, Cream smiled. "I knew you'd say that. I can't really remember the war… but I'd like to meet a human. Or see Station Square."

But then Cream's smile faded.

"I don't think he likes me."

Bunnie turned to her young sibling. "Cream, honey, he…"

"It's ok. I'm here to be useful," she spoke with total determination. "And I will be. I won't be left behind next time!"

Tails took that moment to jump in the ring pool, signaling the end of the actual exercise portion of the morning's activities. Sally started to scold him, but made the mistake of standing too close. A twist and turn of his tails, and she was soaked to the bone. By then, Cream was gone, too. Bunnie sighed.

She'd known the young girl had an interest in their Tails, and thought it rather cute. The fox (or kitsune, she supposed) hadn't exactly had a lot of healthy experiences with the opposite sex. The report in her hands about Fiona Fox's interrogation, and the operations they'd run based on her statements and those of Nic and Nack, only reminded her of that fact. But Cream was a good girl: hard working, friendly, and open minded. And they looked so cute together!

When they'd finally met, she'd taken to him very quickly and readily.

But really, Bunnie sort of wondered why.

It was true that Tails – sweet and smart as he was - had a certain charm, but not with women. Never with women, as far as she knew. Tails had always been sort of shy when it came to girls, and she had known some of the details of the 'Fiona Incident' that occurred over two years ago (something about a female android that tried to seduce him, as if Sonic hadn't fallen for that trick, too). She knew it had hurt his self-confidence. She also knew that Tails had never even tried to get a girlfriend since then, not counting the real Fiona (who turned out to be a basket case). Not that he hadn't been seen with females of many types, just that he never… spent any time with them.

He didn't seem to care.

More to the point… As much as she hated to admit it, Tails' appearance and physical... peculiarity had not done him any favors. Those who worked with him respected him, but she knew that just as many resented him as well. He was the youngest Freedom Fighter, and the closest to Sonic aside from Sally. No one had called him a 'freak' like they did back at the village Tails' had been found in by Sonic all those years ago, but the intentions were there and the thoughts were there under the surface. It was both strange and wonderful that her sister had taken such a liking to him.

She watched as Tempest joined Sally and Tails. The two Kitsune foxes sat, face to face, in the clearing by the Ring Pool. Tails still was not the sheer size of his mentor, but he was … large now. Sonic's height just about, he had also filled out in other areas. His chest was broader, and the muscles on his arms and legs were slightly more defined, though still far from matching Tempest's tempered physique. This was hardly a surprise however, given that the older fox had spent his life working on his body, while Tails had only recently done the same.

There were many differences, though, if one looked closely at the two: Tails' face was still warmer, friendlier, less… worldly. And the long fur that made up Tempest's dark gold mane was shorter in Tails. While Tempest's flowed all the way down his shoulders, touching his shoulders and collarbone, Tails' was shorter, and more ruffled. Of the two, Tails' definitely had the 'wilder' more unconstrained look about him. Then again, was Tempest _showing him how to comb his hair?_

It looked like serious business.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Bunnie knew full well she was interrupting something, but personal hygiene class could be put off for later.

"Hmm." Tails cupped his chin. "No, no, join in. Tempest here is lecturing me about looking like a… what was it? A wet rat? And Aunt Sally here was yelling at me for getting her a little wet…"

"A little wet! You know it takes an hour for me to dry off!!"

"Sort of wet," Tails continued. "I suppose you have those reports on the operations in the city?"

"Boy, proper grooming is essential to one's status in society…"

"Oh, those!" Sally held out her hands. "Let me…"

Bunnie cocked her head to the side.

"Oh yeah…" Sally lowered her still-quite-wet hands. "I forgot."

"Ok, ok," Tails spoke up. "Sally, Bunnie, give me forty minutes. Tempest. Can we skip the lesson on combing?"

He grumbled, but didn't say 'no.'

"Forty minutes," Sally reminded him, nodding to Bunnie. The two quickly left.

"Oh… I see," Tempest said, after a few seconds. "You want that lesson on telepathy."

Tails stood, and started to pace. "Yes. Your advice before was actually incredibly useful. But I want to know more…"

"Mental powers are the most dangerous of them all. You probably already know this." Tempest crossed his legs and took a few seconds to think deeply about how to proceed. "I will teach you what you will find useful. But some things can only be learned from experience and others… others are forbidden."

"Well, I can understand that," Tails said with an accepting grunt, then snapped his fingers in apparent realization. "Oh, and there is something else I should mention."

He explained.

"Nail, huh?" Tempest asked. "Is this really what you want?"

Tails stood at the edge of the Ring Pool, straightening out the bangs that hung over his forehead. "Yeah…"

Satisfied with them, he smirked.

"…He could be useful."

* * *

**--Notes Chapter 3--**

**Finally, we got to the new stuff**, and as author, _I_ finally got to start the meat and bones of the ACO Reload project. This marks the major divergence from the storyline.

Unlike chapters 1 and 2, I was happy with how Chapter 3 developed. I actually rather enjoyed Sonic Riders (plotless linear racing that it was), and found certain elements to be an interesting and welcome addition to the COA continuity. The Babylon Rogues themselves make for useful adversaries.

In fact, the original COA adaptation of Sonic Riders was the "Through Fire and Shadow" prequel comic. In that story, Tails bribes the Rogues (and a group of Battlebird Armada remnanats) with the location of von Mainz's Tomb and the treasure of lost Babylon Garden. In return, they help him fight the Black Arms and Eggman Legion troops besieging Westopolis and the continent of Downunda. However, even that alliance goes sour as the Rogues try to cut and run, leading to a two way enmity between them.

Per COA continuity, the Rogues have some prior relationship with Tails as well, as they "replaced" him after he turned against and split the Battlebird Armada (in the game 'Tails Adventures' which chronologically occurs before Sonic 2). As such, the Rogues knows things about Tails' past that he goes to pains to hide, and Jet in particular makes use of this knowledge to infuriate the kitsune.

Last, there's Fiona. Between when I wrote the original first draft of ACO and the Reload project, the comics gave her a much larger role. I adapted that, because I rather like Fiona as an evil villainess (bitch!). Naturally, her COA incarnation is a bit more screwed up in the head, literally enjoying being naughty for its own sake. Tails still obviously cares for her, but it's a stubborn screwed up sort of infatuation. Don't expect any serious Tails/Fiona pairing in the story. It would be too insane and kinky. I did enjoy writing Fiona, though, and I'd like to get back to her sometime in the future.

* * *


	11. Nothing Else i

**"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."  
- Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)**

* * *

Lara-Su clapped her hands once in self congratulation, standing before her masterpiece. She may not have had the skill of the Four Turtle Masters of the Renaissance, but she'd put a lot of work into this, and it actually came out pretty well. Dominating one of the walls in her rented apartment loft were two paired whiteboards, covered with arrows names and scribbles. On the top most part of each board were chronological divisions, represented by a fox's face that was at first smiling and friendly, angry and scowling, and then sporting one eye blacked out. Other, less legible, scribbles were scattered around on the corners and sides.

"I think I've got it all here…" Lara said, eyes tracing over the meandering arrows that connected one even to another. Twirling the black marker in her hand, she nodded in satisfaction. Everything seemed to be in place: from the events that had happened, to the events that should have happened but didn't, to the events that would have happened if things hadn't gotten screwed up.

Central to keeping the timeline from shifting _completely_ off focus were a few key events. She wasn't terribly concerned about Helios or the Battle for Knothole. With some minor changes, it was likely that something that big would happen no matter what. The stuff around Shadow, she gave a small blue question mark in a circle. It would probably go like it had before, but there was a chance she would have to intervene. Other events, like Tails meeting Nail, seemed basically on track, if slightly different. Those, she underlined in blue.

Unfortunately, there were a number of events that now seemed completely out of the timeline. Things like: 'Tails and Cream meet' and 'Tails/Cream date' were slashed out in red. Instead, new events that didn't belong were inserted in red marker: 'attack on comm. center' and 'Babylon Rogues.' Some future events, also rendered near impossible by recent events ('infiltration of Nor'easter' had an X on it), had to be factored for. As Lara studied it, though, there were other disturbing facts she had to contend with.

First were the sources of the disruption. The Rogues she knew about, and had left to Tails. The others were mercenaries, but two others were unknowns. She had been discretely trailing those two for some time, but hadn't yet found out who they were or what they were up to. Another problem, besides these new people causing trouble, was the fact that other things had shifted as well. A perfect case in point was Fiona. The Miles she knew had said that the only Fiona he had ever cared for was the aggravating android he had rebuilt, and that he hadn't given any thought at all to the original. In this time line, however, Tails and Fiona had more of a history.

Could ripples in the timeline be going back, as well as forward, in time?

Or had someone gone even further back than her, and tinkered with things?

She'd already interfered in events, giving Tails that GEAR so he could chase after the culprits. Her own actions, Lara referenced on the chart with green marker. She'd hoped to keep them to a minimum… but if the disturbances in the time line were so severe that entire chronological events were being displaced and rearranged, then it was possible she would have to step in directly to ensure that the major events ticked off on schedule.

Nibbling on the cap of the marker, Lara considered that.

So the real question was: what were the events that had to be carried over in continuity and what could she afford to ignore or alter outright by her interference?

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER FOUR:_

**Nothing Else (A Steady Fall From Grace)**

* * *

The boy had actually left him directions to the site.

_"Don't mind me," Tails said, tossing a towel over his shoulders as he headed in. "After I meet with Sally, I have some special projects to looks into… In the mean time, if you want, you can put Nail through his paces. You'll see exactly why I'm interested in what he can show me…"_

This wasn't how Tempest had been told the boy's training would go.

Granted, Miles was nothing like normal kitsune youngsters. In a healthier environment, he would have began his training from the time he was weaned. Like all boys, he would have been assigned a hunting party (whereas girls transferred to military units), where he would have formed close pack bonds with the friends and comrades he would have for the rest of his life. His days would be spent learning the art of the hunt, the use and maintenance of weaponry, food preparation, social protocols, and written composition. During and after his Turan'ha, he would then find a niche to specialize in.

This "work" the Princess had him doing wasn't conducive to a natural upbringing. It divided the boy's focus, and took away time that should have been spent honing his physical and mental discipline. Tempest wasn't happy with it. He also wasn't happy that the Elders had neglected to mention the strength of the boy's Chaos Powers. Tempest had never even **heard** of a kitsune with those sorts of abilities. In fact, as far as he knew, Kitsune never became chaos adepts. They weren't even sensitive to chaos energy when it was right in front of them.

Which was why Nail could be, to quote the boy himself, "useful."

Tempest wasn't so sure. Bringing the Princess in on some of the training was fine, since she'd stick her nose in on things anyway, but bringing in yet another outsider? And an echidna? It was very… unorthodox. The whole trip was turning out to be disturbingly unorthodox. Even the very start of the training arrangement was off due to the boy's lifestyle and commitments. Tempest had to consider the growing possibility that the boy wouldn't come out of the whole experience as a proper kitsune would. What he would turn out as, then… Tempest couldn't imagine.

"I guess I'm just improvising as I go…" he hated to admit it, but it was the truth.

Following the trail through the forest, the fox caught a foreign scent. It stuck out like a sore thumb in this land, and could only be one of a very few things. Logically, it had to be that echidna. Earlier in the day, he'd detected another unusual scent near where he was staying, one that didn't belong on this part of the mainland. He could smell some of that nearby, too. It was suspicious. Tempest's eyes narrowed and he took in another deep breath of air, nostrils flaring. At least he could recognize one of the scents with relative certainty.

Echidna.

He kept walking, taking in his surroundings. There were other scents, too: mobians. Locals. Up ahead, nearing the end of the trail, he saw an open area partly fenced off. A sign on the fence indicated that the area within was a weapons testing range. Tempest smirked; it was an appropriate enough area for him to meet this echidna and see what he could contribute to the curriculum.

Eyes searching over and into the canopy of trees, Tempest paused.

"Nail, is it?"

A moment later, the conspicuous dark red coloring of an echidna drifting through the air confirmed his suspicions. By the looks of him, this was the guy. He seemed outwardly no different from the others he had heard about (though never actually seen). He was darkish red color, almost brick, with the long dreadlocks typical of his people. The headscarf was white and long, blowing in the breeze behind him.

"You must be Tempest." Nail landed softly in the middle of the range.

"If you don't mind me asking: just what are you doing here, echidna?" Tempest asked, trying to get a handle on the other Mobian's motivations. "I've heard that your people are non-aligned in the Southern War."

"Most of them are," Nail responded. "There are a select few who work with the Freedom Fighters from time to time, despite the non-interference laws that were recently passed. Besides, I'm not exactly what you'd call a normal echidna."

Tempest tried to read his opponent, and came back satisfied.

"Very well... I see no malice or deception in your eyes. Perhaps being around these so called 'Freedom Fighters' here has made me slightly…paranoid." Tempest again thought of the soon to be 'dead' Clan of Surni'var. "Life here... for them seems to be tenuous at best."

"It is," Nail agreed, glancing off in the direction of Knothole. This far out from the city, it was invisible, protected by the city cloak. "It's hard to find a moment of peace. But they always do somehow. In many ways they're a big family. Always looking out for each other and helping on another out in times of trouble. But also in many ways they're annoying."

"Very annoying. Especially the hedgehogs." Tempest silently finished evaluating this new arrival. He was fairly sure the echidna wasn't a threat - at least not a physical one.

Nail grinned at the hedgehog comment. "Believe it or not, Rush is the better of the two. At least he's willing to listen to some advice from time to time. But Sonic…"

Nail balled one of his gloved hands into a fist. "He has such great potential, but it's wasted because of his over inflated ego; he never listens to anyone until it's too late! This war could have been over a long time ago if…To be perfectly honest, I have no idea how Sally stands him. He's one of the reasons I prefer to stay out here instead of inside the city like everyone else."

Tempest smiled, and a long shadow from the branches high above fell on the two. "Too true... However, I doubt it'll likely matter much in a few days."

"Because of Tails?"

"Yes. The boy has a number of Blood Feuds down here. I suspect he'll want to settle them before going back North." Tempest spared Nail a quick glance. "How much do you know?"

"My master, Athair, has suspected something for a long time," Nail replied. "A power laying dormant in him. He has already used the Chaos Force to empower himself several times, but I had plans to try and tutor him in… nuance and spirituality, you could call it."

"I know you probably don't want it or need it…" Nail remembered everything Tails had told him, about the Turan'ha, and Tempest himself, and decided this was definitely the best way to go about doing what needed to be done. "But I'd like to offer my help in training him."

"Nuance and spirituality?" Tempest seemed to find the remarks somewhat amusing. "Unusual words, from an echidna. Putting aside the utility of such things, and no offense intended... but no echidna I'm aware of has the hardiness required for such a job. Unless you were the so called Guardian of your people I've heard so much about."

Nail didn't seem insulted.

"Funny you should mention that," he said, calmly. "I'm connected to the Guardian in a way. And I have a few tricks up my sleeve that might surprise you. But if you need a true test: how about a friendly match? Right now. It's why we're here, isn't it?"

A cool breeze blew across the cleared ground, ratting the fences that surrounded the weapons testing area. Tempest scratched his chin. "One would almost suspect that the boy knew we would end up in a fight."

"Are you saying you're not interested in a friendly spar?" Nail motioned with his fingers.

Tempest's smile widened, exposing his canines. "No. I'm not saying that at all."

* * *

Tails sat at his workshop desk, but his eyes were on one of the nearby monitors.

"Why **is it** so hard to resist the urge for friendly banter?" he wondered, having no problem speaking his mind in the privacy of his workshop. Then he shrugged, and diverted his right hand to a keyboard, activating a number of secondary systems and sensors. The left, meanwhile, continued to type on another keyboard, where a schematic was slowly taking shape.

* * *

Tempest turned around fully. Reaching up, he idly craned his neck to the side, and back again, before cracking his knuckles, and loosening his arms a bit. "Shall we keep it within this area?"

"This area has already seen its fair share of destruction," Nail remarked as he got into a fighting stance. "And this forest has seen enough strife as it is."

The kitsune fox nodded in agreement. There was no point risking further damage to the natural habitat on which Knothole depended. Keeping the fight to this clearing, which would only end up being blown up or blasted later, was a good idea on the boy's part.

"You may want to bundle that up." Tempest pointed to Nail's headscarf. "It'll get in the way."

"I'd rather not remove it," Nail said, quickly, and a little defensively.

"As you wish…" Tempest didn't pry.

His hands flowed through the air, moving forward and slightly cupped, as his stance altered slightly in response to Nail's. He advanced cautiously until he was a short distance from the echidna. Sizing him up mentally, the Kitsune projected the expected paths of attack mentally, and opened his senses for stray thoughts. He began in earnest with a simple set of strikes he got about halfway through, before he noticed Nail was moving far too fast for any 'normal' echidna. Following through on the attack, Tempest blocked Nail's first counter strike.

Though it was light by standards Tempest was used to, it was still far stronger than should have been possible. Kneeing up, and intercepting another counterblow, Tempest increased his speed and concentrated on more complex, counter-predictive combinations of attacks, fleshing out his opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Finally, after over thirty seconds of dancing with his opponent, he realized that he was getting nowhere. Tempest opened up with a duo of forearm strikes Nail dodged easily, but had the intended effect of finally breaking their cycle of blows.

Tempest wasn't breathing hard.

But... neither was Nail.

"Odd." Tempest again checked the echidna. He seemed normal, despite the increased heart rate, and the rush of blood to his muscles and face. He smelled again, sure that he must have missed something earlier. "You aren't an android, are you? Some other type of unnatural creation?"

"So… figured it out already, huh? I should have expected nothing less. Tails wasn't kidding about you…" Nail sighed, but didn't bother trying to come up with any elaborate excuse. "If you must know, I'm something of a clone of the current Guardian of the Floating Island, Knuckles."

"A regular Clone?" Tempest asked. "No normal echidna, cloned or not, could move like you just did."

"Well to tell the truth, I'm not entirely sure myself. All I know is that I have a strong tie to the Master Emerald on the Floating Island. And since I… earned my freedom, I've been trained by Athair. He's a sort of holy man of the echidnas. Though that description hardly does him justice."

"He taught you to fight like you did against me just now?"

"Not exactly," Nail explained a little reluctantly. "Most of that was implanted in me when I was...'born.' Why, what's got you so worried?"

"Your style of fighting is... very human. Highly unusual for one who is an echidna, and whose body lacks the structure to fully utilize such techniques."

"Human? …There's probably a reason for that," Nail muttered.

"You... had an overlander as your mentor? ...Or was he your creator?"

"He was **NOT** my mentor!" Nail yelled, suddenly. "He never was and never will be!"

"I was only curious." Tempest was honestly surprised by the outburst. "Information on their fighting styles is very difficult to come by. I had hoped you'd know a living, flesh and blood overlander I could meet and learn from. Most of my knowledge on their styles is second or third hand."

Nail 'hmfed.'

"You wouldn't want to meet him. Trust me."

"I see," Tempest decided not to broach that subject further. "Would you like to continue?"

"Yeah. And try not to hold back this time. You know I can take it now."

Tempest nodded just once, and resumed his attack. He had learned numerous styles of fighting, but his personal preference was the Vandal School, perfected by the recluses of the Fa'Rah Clan. After much groveling and trial, he had learned many of their secrets and adapted them into the family style his father had taught him. However, it had never simply been this training in these arts that allowed his rise to Ephor Anthal. It was his insight in battle he was most known for.

As the two continued to trade blows and counterblows, Tempest kept trying to feel out Nail's overall style. This was only a friendly little exhibition match, after all, so there was no need to try and end things quickly. Especially because he was curious about this training Nail had been 'born' with. At first, it seemed almost nonsensical, composed of combinations of seemingly unrelated moves. It was only once Tempest realized and confirmed that they were numerous human styles, it quickly became perfectly clear.

Nail had been programmed with these skills, in pre-ordered and organized sets. Tempest didn't know if his opponent planned it this way, but Nail's moves were all flawlessly executed, but inflexible combinations from each of the Arts he'd been given at birth. It seemed to have no real pattern, because one combination could be from a totally different set of martial arts that the one before or after it. Only the basics were the same. After only a few minutes, Tempest had quickly identified and noted a dozen different sets of moves Nail seemed most fond of, and the styles of combat associated with each. It was obvious that the echidna clone had perfect working knowledge of these techniques, but not a whole lot of real life experience in their use.

"You fight very well, Nail…." Tempest jumped back and away, rebounding off a tree, before coming to his feet. His body had not escaped the exchange cleanly. The fox had picked up a few bruises, despite his stressing flexibility and avoidance early on, in the effort to decipher Nail's style. "If we continue... if you choose to, one of us, or possibly both, may be injured beyond that of normal sparring. Few animals can fight against me when I'm at this level of seriousness."

Nail nodded, understanding. He belatedly nursed a nasty bruise on his arm. "Well I'm up for it. I can take a few bruises, and I'm a pretty fast healer. But if we're going to turn up the heat, then I'll need a minute."

"Of course," Tempest lowered his arms and waited. "By all means."

He also thought, very briefly, about going into Bloodlust, but decided against it. Unlike normal Mobians, the kitsune spleen could release, along with a reservoir of red blood cells, a potent 'battle cocktail' of hormones that resulted in dramatically increased oxygen transportation and muscle response. It also had the unfortunate side effect of clouding the mind, which made it a poor trade off in Tempest's experience. He'd only ever seriously used it once, and that had been a life or death situation with no clear alternative.

From the looks of things, Nail seemed to be doing something similar. The echidna was in what looked like a defensive stance. But Tempest noticed something different about it.

He just wasn't _quite_ sure what.

Then he felt it… a slight shift in the air. He concentrated on Nail again, who seemed to focusing on something. Nail's face became serene, like he was asleep but still standing. Virtually deaf to the Chaos Force himself, Tempest only realized what he was seeing when emerald green energy began to coalesce around the echidna. Looking down at his right hand, Tempest felt his black ring tingle and grow a little hotter. After a few seconds, the energy mostly dissipated, the ring cooled back to normal, and Nail again got into his attack stance.

"There!" He said excitedly. "Now I'm ready."

"Interesting…!" Tempest looked more closely at the 'energy' around his opponent, now tinting Nail's red fur a shade of softly glowing green. "Very interesting!"

Naturally, Tempest smelled the air, and checked again, but found no evidence of photo-illuminative cells on the surface of Nail's skin, nor any pyrotechnic elements in the air. Almost desperately curious, Tempest searched telepathically, and finally got a 'feel' for whatever was surround the echidna. Though exactly what he was feeling mentally, he had no idea.

'This introduces new variables,' he thought, both rationalizing the scenario and searching for its weakness. 'It could be a force field. Or some type of ablative barrier that explodes when touched. Is it defensive or offensive in nature? … Is it even natural?'

'Only one way to know for sure…'

Tempest silently cursed the unknown, and charged.

Nail saw Tempest approaching and could sense his confusion. He smiled a bit at that, but didn't let it get to him. He knew that Tempest was still a powerful fighter and possibly even more dangerous when not entirely sure what he was up against. He waited until Tempest was only a few feet away before jumping into the air, flexing his power, and landing behind the confused fox. Before Tempest could turn around, Nail brought his foot forward and buried it in his opponent's left shoulder blade, causing him to jolt forward slightly.

"What on Mobius?" Tempest spun, touching one foot to the ground, before pushing off expertly, and kicking out, aiming for the slowest part of the body - the collar. Then, to the fox's surprise, Nail drifted backwards, avoiding the blow.

"How?" Tempest gasped, then, landing on his hand, noticed Nail was floating in midair.

Not jumping.

Not accelerating.

Just floating.

That wasn't natural!

Tempest checked again: No rockets. ...It couldn't be an artificial anti-gravity field. Nail wasn't carrying anything remotely like that. It had to be some strange technology or power! He had to find out more about it!

"You're just full of surprises aren't you?" Tempest called out, altering his original stance to land backward, instead of forward, and narrowed his eyes.

"You don't know the half of it. You really want me to come at you with everything I've got?"

"I don't think I'm going to give you a choice!" Tempest' smile turned to a smirk, and in his open palms were two small cylinders. Instantly, on command, they expanded and folded out into two long polearms, specially designed, and slightly shorter than normal, with the blades extended backwards another half the normal length. He then squeezed, and the blades folded up and retracted.

"I don't like surprises, you see..."

In a flash, faster than before, Tempest charged, the two short de-bladed polearms glistening in the light hypnotically. And despite trying not to, Nail found them distracting his eyes from Tempest himself, and accelerating backwards at top speed, he barely avoided a lightning quick shot at the last second. Tempest didn't hesitate, or let the miss linger, instead conserving the wasted momentum to turn and continue his attack from a different angle. Nail growled, and kept using his mobility to his advantage, avoiding or snapping aside most of the single strikes, and simply dodging the crossed ones no matter the opportunity.

Individually, the sticks were difficult to block and avoid, but they crossed and turned, making it hard to follow their movements or predict where the next attack would come from. Finally, sensing a break in the attack, Nail jumped up and away, catching his breath. Looking himself over, he noted that he'd been struck in numerous areas, though none had hit hard enough to break anything. Tempest was slower than him, no doubt about it, but his speed and skill with those weapons…

"I see you have some surprises as well. Well here's another one of mine!" Nail shouted as he stretched his hand out, palm forward. Tempest looked on, a bit surprised by the odd gesture. Then, in the same motion a small ball of energy, emerald green with wisps of yellow, grew and flew from Nail's hand and crashed into one of the polearms Tempest was holding. It glowed for a second before silently exploding, turning most of it into little scraps of metal.

Which… shouldn't have happened.

"What…?" Tempest looked at the ruins of the polearm he had instinctively used to block the... whatever it was, with. The soft expandicore had transitioned into a gas, ruining the weapon despite its insulation. He'd never seen anything like it.

'Could this be… Chaos Control? Damn!' He mentally hissed. 'At least it wasn't one of a kind. But still…'

Tempest looked up and growled, throwing the ruined weapon away. Nail was still in the air. A jump would be too easily intercepted, and too slow. That meant ranged combat... and after seeing that… that **THING** Nail had shot at him, Tempest didn't like that prospect. By the power behind it, if it wasn't some sort of Chaos Energy attack (whatever that even _meant_) it was likely some kind of concealed weapon. Maybe an implanted plasma accelerator, like the kind he'd heard some cyborgs and robots had.

"Fine then!" Tempest rested the length of the remaining de-bladed polearm against his forearm, in a reverse grip supported by his free hand. "Don't think that'll work more than once!"

Holding up both hands, Nail fired again; Tempest seemed to tense, briefly, before lunging under the blast and breaking into a run. Nail focused more chaos energy down his arm and into the chaos orbs, but Tempest seemed able to read each one even before it left Nail's hands. In seconds, the kitsune had closed the distance between them. Nail flew higher, gliding upwards, when he jerked forward.

Looking down at his legs, he saw a wire – barely visible - wrapped around his ankles. By Tempest's stance, he could guess that the wire originated from the weapon he still held and around his other hand. With a jerk, Nail fell back to earth, crashing first into the ground, and then off to the side and into the fence. Cocking his head to the side, the echidna deftly avoided the detached blunt end of Tempest's metal polearm, which he had thrown and which he promptly withdrew, from half way across the weapons testing ground.

"I'm getting careless…" Nail muttered to himself. "I need another plan."

His immediate problem was the wire still wound around his ankles. Pinpointing it, he fired down at the ground with both hands, weakening it just as Tempest pulled back, aiming to slam him into the fence on the opposite side of the field. Barely escaping in time, Nail shot off to the side, building up a reserve of chaos energy. His use of the Master Emerald's power, through Athair's intercession, gave him the raw material to work with. But he didn't have the innate mastery of it that Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails enjoyed. More to the point, his body couldn't handle it as theirs did, leaving him unable to transition Chaos Energy into a physically malleable state.

Despite what he'd told Tempest about healing quickly and taking blows, damage soaking with his kitsune opponent was a sure fire way to end up beaten into a bloody pulp. Dodging another one of Tempest's attacks, Nail formed a different plan. He flew back a bit further and then began to rapidly fire at the areas around Tempest, not bothering to try and hit the quick moving fighter, and instead simply kicking up as much dust and dirt as possible.

When he was sure the screen was enough, Nail raced down towards where Tempest still stood, aiming to end the fight with a surprise kick the side of his head. To his own surprise, the fox caught his heel, and bringing his wrist down and elbow up, flipping Nail in midair. Stabilizing himself in midair just enough to land on his feet, Nail frowned. Hand-to-hand combat with Tempest probably wasn't the best idea, but he's hoped that the smoke screen would give him enough of an edge, since he could at least feel out Tempest's general location without relying on his eyes.

* * *

Nail had made a serious mistake, getting close to Tempest.

Tails watched the fight with one eye, focusing mostly on his work. He had every intention to finish the day with ample opportunity to learn from the two Mobians beating each other up over at the Electronic Warfare Testing Range. Better yet, the instruments recording the fight, including the Chaos Spectrometer, had confirmed his own suspicions. Nail was channeling energy from the Master Emerald (a waveform Tails had ample readings on, thanks to Knuckles) in a manner that was significantly different that what Tails had observed in Sonic and himself. Tempest, meanwhile, registered as having a constant but negligible waveform, even in the heat of combat.

Tempest had mentioned that kitsune were generally chaos insensitive, but Tails' own experiments had already concluded that certain kitsune abilities represented a low level form of chaos use. It was hardly remarkable. Dulcy and other Dragonkin were similar, but it was a surprise to see that it was a trait his people had as well. The ability to utilize ambient Chaos Energy, and the ability to channel Energy by proxy, were both of interested to him.

Like Sonic, Tails' body actively absorbed Chaos Energy he came in contact with, be it in the form of rings or actual Chaos Emeralds. This 'Black Body' state also seemed to be inexhaustible, compared to someone like Tempest. While the older kitsune absorbed a small amount of ambient energy and stored it until it was used, without even knowing it, someone like Sonic better resembled a bottomless pit. Sonic could absorb ring after ring after ring of Chaos Energy, each sufficient to empower a hundred normal kitsune, growing more powerful… but never reaching absolute capacity.

At the same time, this system Sonic enjoyed was incredibly wasteful. Factoring waste out of the equations, Sonic should have been able to use the power in a Ring for weeks, even assuming peak exertion. To date, Tails had been unable to determine where all the waste Chaos Energy went. Obviously, it didn't just disappear. The Finitevus Theorem stipulated that the waste energy was being channeled into a Universal Reserve, where it would build up until reaching critical mass.

If not for the ban on developing Chaos Siphons, Tails would have tested the theory more rigorously. As it was, if a Universal Reserve did exist, it offered the promise of virtually unlimited power. Power equal to an entire set of Chaos Emeralds. With that much at their disposal, Knothole… and the Freedom Fighters… would have all they needed to bring the war to its conclusion. His own accelerating mastery of Chaos Control, combined with an understanding of the two other extremes of waveform manifestation, represented by Tempest and Nail, offered promising avenues of research.

Tails watched, taking his eyes off the monitor with the nearly complete schematic, to watch Nail stumble back, holding his limp right arm. _Pressure point_. Tails had made that same mistake, too. He had warned the echidna that Tempest was a master of esoteric martial arts. Still, there was a lot he could learn, and not just through experimentation. As Tempest had said, experience was just as important.

Conventional force of arms had failed in the past. Like in Downunda…

And even now, the Freedom Fighters were locked in a seemingly endless circle of attrition with the remnants of the Eggman Empire. Since Sally had little stomach for war ending super weapons, and the humans and echidna had both dropped out of the fight (indeed, both sides often seemed to be hoping to drag out the war), that meant that neither logistics, tactics, nor diplomacy could bring things to anything but a long and bloody close. Estimates for the final push on Robotropolis had been projected at thirty to forty thousand, with an 80 loss rate among the bulk of the army conscripts.

Chaos Control was the answer. Tails was sure of it. With it, he could end the war, and protect everyone he cared for. Any hypothetical accolades he received for it were irrelevant; what mattered was that the maximum number of lives were saved. Though, Tails had to admit, a part of him would _enjoy_ proving everyone wrong; showing all of them just how much of a hero he was, even if he wasn't Sonic.

Why else would the thought bring a smile to his face?

He activated a small communications panel built into the work station. "Rotor, I'm sending a few things down to the shop. Priority One. All the hands you can spare."

On the other end of the line, Rotor paused as the blueprints were sent over.

"Are these what I think they are?"

Tails' smile never wavered.

"They are," he replied. "You know me. Once I start something, I like to **finish** it."

* * *

They met in an abandoned mansion out in the Ring. The once palatial estate had long since been overrun by creeping vines that now covered half the rotting wooden façade of the East Wing. Grand arches still stood outside, by empty pools and gardens turned grassland. Save the eastern half of the mansion, little else remained. A tray bomb had long since turned the rest into kindling, leaving only the skeletal brick remains of chimneys, jutting like ribs into the sky. As two figures approached the building, a murder of crows swarmed from their roost in a tall tree, squawking angrily.

"Birds don't like you very much, do they?" one of them commented.

The other didn't dignify the comment with a reply.

Crows circling overhead, the two entered the overgrown grounds adjacent to the remaining façade. Walking inside, entering what had once been a grand kitchen, their reception was less than warm. Two mobians in rag tag fatigues were in wait, weapons at the ready. The two trespassers merely held up their hands, empty save for one item: a small lacquer box.

"You'll have to excuse me for being cautious…" A third mobian entered the ruined old kitchen, carefully stepping around a moss covered and far from functional oven, left open in the last few frantic moments the inhabitants had had. He was a lynx with light fur and careful, wary eyes. Unlike the two others, he was unarmed, and wore a loose shirt and plain black pants.

"We understand," one of the new arrivals answered, keeping her hands in the air. "I've heard about the trouble we gave you. Sorry."

"Those boys got sloppy, and whatever you've done, it's rightly pissed off some serious players uptown." The lynx nodded to his two men, and they searched the female, patting her down for any obvious concealments or surprises. Blaze closed her eyes and endured it. Next to her, Silver hid his expression less effectively. He was clearly less than happy with how familiar the guards were getting with her.

"The loss of five or six men is less… troubling than the fact that the boys uptown found out about the other two meeting spots," the lynx continued. "I have what you wanted, though. The price is unchanged."

"Good," Blaze replied, her voice level, even as the guard finished patting her down. He then ran a small radio scanner up and down her body that detected nothing out of the ordinary.

"She's clean," the guard confirmed.

"The case, too," the other added, handing it back to its owner. They then did the same to Silver, checking for bugs or any other surprises. When they finished, having found nothing, not even a personal weapon, the lynx snapped his fingers and motioned them to keep an eye out while they went further inside.

Beyond the kitchen was a sitting room, but it had been cleaned up just a little. Four fold out chairs were also present, along with a small table. Walking inside, Silver found himself looking up at a dusty portrait of the mansion's original owners. It was a family portrait, flanked by hooks that may once have held swords and a coat of arms. The walls were stripped bare now, of almost anything valuable. Even many light fixtures were conspicuously uprooted. Nearby, the cracked face of a half destroyed grandfather clock reflected his apprehension in its broken glass.

The lynx kept no guards in the room itself as a sign of trust.

"May I see it?" Blaze asked, having little patience or interest in pleasantries. She placed her lacquer box on the table.

"Do you have the code?" the lynx asked.

She did. "Nine. Four. Six. Two."

The lynx nodded, and lifted a large carrying case off the ground and onto the table. Two separate locks were required to open it: one mechanical, and the other electronic. After setting the numbers in place for the first lock, 9-4-6-2, he retrieved a small plastic e-key from a chain around his neck, normally kept tucked into his shirt. Inserting it into the other lock, the case opened with an audible click.

"A security feature…" he assured them. Opening the case fully, he carefully removed an item wrapped in paper and foil, and handed it over. Blaze took it from him with only an instant's trepidation. She slowly unwrapped it, revealing dark tinted steel and bronze.

Revealing a scepter, dark as the night. Delicate silver veins, etchings, ran up and down the heft of it, like coils of poison ivy. The craftsmanship was beyond reproach: every angle and surface was covered in it, giving the impression of an inky, living thing. While a scepter in design, it seemed almost a mace in motif, with the head branching into eight spiked crowning flanges, around cylindrical lantern-like core. Stylized bird's wings wrapped around from the sides. Blaze held it up to the light, inspecting it carefully.

"It **is** genuine, I assure you," the lynx spoke up. "The Scepter of Dark Dreaming, formerly of the Mobian Institute of Art and Culture. From the Alder Collection, confiscated in 3187."

"It looks like it," Silver noted.

The comment earned a raised eyebrow from the lynx.

"I only deal in reputable merchandise and serious collectors," he added, checking the lacquer box Blaze had brought with her. Opening it briefly, just enough to check what was inside; he closed it again and inclined his head to her. "Ma'am, I wish you luck in your future endeavors."

Something about his comment provoked an odd little laugh from the feline.

"…Thanks."

* * *


	12. Nothing Else ii

It all came back to that smell.

By the time Tempest returned, it was stronger than ever, inside the domicile he had been given as well as outside. As far as he knew, the southerners here didn't make use of Auxiliaries to attend to guests, which left Tempest inclined to view the intrusion as less than benevolent. With some time to spare, he tracked it down. His initial investigation led him to a loft in the city, furnished and well appointed, but otherwise empty.

He then followed the trail, reasonably fresh as it was, back out, and eventually into the forest. The route had included a rather circumspect tour though the old open air market that had almost thrown him, especially as it seemed to disappear at one point, only to pick up later. Tempest was well aware of the lockdown security system Knothole operated under, and whomever this was, she (and it was definitely female) had organized a secret route in and out.

Tempest exited by the appropriate means, circled around, and resumed the hunt.

He found his quarry several miles into the forest. The scent trail led to a small shack that, long ago, probably belonged to some hermit or reclusive woodcutter. The woods had done well to reclaim the land, though a few lingering tree stumps stood as mute testimony to the one-time presence of sentient beings in the area. Tempest was tempted to break in, but he could hear his Prey moving around inside, even from a distance, and waited instead.

He didn't have to wait long.

"…that's right. It has to be the locations of their Chaos Emeralds. I see." A long pause. "Casino Night? Tweed had it? Why didn't he… that idiot!"

Tempest strained to hear more. Something about Shadow. They had to mean that black hedgehog the boy had talked about…

"I don't think there's anything I can do here. No. But there's no way they'll let me in any secure facilities, especially not after that mess those idiots caused the other day. Yes? I suppose, but…" Another long pause. "I know that. Alright. Ok. I need to get going. I'll look into it."

Another pause.

'Oh,' Tempest thought, suddenly aware of something, intuition filling in the details of the ongoing silence. 'I think she's on to me…!'

Ducking under cover, he saw a shape emerge, hugging the side of the old woodcutters shack. It was his first good look at her.

'Well, she would be able to hear me,' he thought, 'with ears like that.'

His Prey came to him. She had a very small concealed weapon in her right hand, held close to her chest. Even from a distance, it didn't look particularly Mobian in design. A custom job, perhaps? The outfit certainly had to be unique: a heart shaped torso covering? Still, she moved with practiced grace, alert, but just a few seconds too late. Rouge abruptly turned, searching the trees for him. He knew her breed, though. Bats had good ears, but not great eyes.

"I know you're out there…" she finally said, still plainly looking for him, and opting for the negotiation route. "Why don't we talk about this? I'm sure we can come to a deal we can both live with."

It was an interesting choice of response.

"Let's talk, then," he announced, loudly enough to be sure she heard. Rouge lowered her weapon and held up her hands as a gesture of good faith, and a second later he emerged and hopped over to the shack's roof, and then to the ground near her. This was the first time he had seen a member of her breed. They were almost unheard of, this far from their time lost jungle lairs in Cat Country. Rumors during the Great War put them in league with the humans, too. Perhaps this one was a transplant from her homeland…?

He held up his hands, weapon free, as a similar show of good faith. Aside from her own small hand weapon, a concealable gun of some type, she seemed unarmed, but after his encounter with Nail earlier, Tempest wasn't inclined to be too unwary. The echidna had seemed unarmed, but had strange tricks at his disposal. Tempest approached this bat female with outward confidence. Inside, however, he was ready to strike to kill. He wasn't in the mood to be blasted, no matter who she was.

"I don't know who you are… or what you're doing out here… but I would like to ask why you've been going through my things." Tempest snarled, getting closer to her.

"Sure thing…" She suddenly jumped forward at him, leg spinning into a flying kick. Tempest instantly pivoted to the side, grabbed the outstretched leg in his left hand, and her right hand and concealed weapon with the other. He squeezed her wrist, causing her hand to open involuntarily. Her weapon fell from her fingers even as he took a quick step, pressing his elbow into her throat. The girl had a strong kick, but such blatant choreography of a blow would never work on him.

"I was actually sort of hoping you'd try something like that…" His tone was passionless, and she started to squirm awkwardly and desperately when she realized he probably had no intention of letting her go. A black wing smacked him in the face, but he hardly felt it. Luminescent blue eyes pleaded silently, and Tempest grimaced, letting the pressure on her throat lessen.

Finally, he let go.

Rouge fell onto her back.

"Owww…" She felt her bruised throat, and then her wrist. "You tried to kill me!"

"I did." Tempest confirmed. "But you tried to kill me first."

Rouge smiled, despite her discomfort, even managing a little laugh.

"I guess I should have expected that," she admitted, getting back to her feet. "Especially after the way you manhandled the Princess…"

His eyes narrowed.

"You've probably already guessed who I am, and what I'm doing here," Rouge continued, eyeing her fallen weapon, but not making a move for it. She shrugged. "There's nothing that says a girl can't look."

"What?" He didn't get that one. "Look at what?"

"At guys…" Rouge saw him just then understand, and slightly shook her head in exasperation. "It's an expression. Anyway, all I did was check in to see who the new guy was."

He looked at her sharply. "And?"

"That's it!"

His scowl deepened.

"And maybe take a few pictures."

"Rogue," he guessed. "Right?"

"You've heard of me!" she smiled happily. "From Sonic? Tails, maybe?"

"The Princess."

Rouge's smile turned into a pout. "Well, don't believe everything you hear."

His expression remained the same. "What are you doing here?"

"Unless you _didn't_ hear that one, Sonic invited me to stay. We're _old friends_ from Station Square, after all," she said the words with a throaty tone of voice that made him doubly uncomfortable. "And he trusts me."

'Why?' was the first thought that came to mind.

"Sorry about the little sneak attack there…" Rouge chuckled nervously and worked the kinks out of her hand, flexing the fingers. "That was just a reflex. I'm sure you know all about that."

"A few seconds ago, my reflexes told me to do something rather permanent to your upper spinal column," he replied, though in truth he wasn't especially angry about it anymore. He had snuck out and confronted her, after all. The little double cross only made things more interesting.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't. My spinal column is one of my best features, I think." She crossed her arms over the pink heart shaped plastic covering her chest (or the lower half of it, anyway). "So, why don't we talk about what I'm sure you overheard in there."

"An isolated area like this…" he motioned towards the trees. "A secret exit from the city. A clandestine means of communications…"

"You probably heard the story about how I, how would she put this, 'tried to sell out Knothole' to the enemy." Rouge scoffed. "It isn't accurate. Sonic knows I've always worked for Station Square. He knows I still do, even though that city fell."

Tempest looked at her with a dubious expression. "What does that mean?"

"You know about Station Square, don't you?" Rouge gave him the short of it, anyway. "The humans there were enemies of the Eggman, and allies of the Princess here. I worked for an organization called GUN, formed to fight the Eggman. A while back, a monster called Perfect Chaos destroyed Station Square. GUN had to evacuate, and a lot of them came here and joined up with this guy named Mastermind."

She rolled her eyes. "He's another one of those world domination loony types, but he had food and shelter and more than a few friends on convenient places. He sheltered most of the civilians so GUN could rebuild and keep fighting. Mastermind's a wacko, but there are good people working under him. Friends of mine."

Tempest also crossed his arms. "So you're feeding them information."

"We're still allies. Just… not openly anymore," Rouge finished. "That's it."

"Why don't you tell…"

"Who?" Rouge cut him off; lowering her arms to her sides, face frowning as she turned away. "Not like anyone would believe me. Things are different now than they were… even just a couple months ago."

"You're… telling the truth," Tempest spoke up, and made up his mind. "I'll leave it up to you, then."

He turned to leave.

Behind him, Rouge eyed the weapon she'd dropped.

"That's it?" she asked. "You're just going to leave?"

"You should tell someone," he said, speaking over his shoulder. "I think… the boy would understand."

"Tails?" Rouge asked. "Why him?"

"He seems to be pragmatic, when it comes to things like this. Do you think you can remain unhidden forever?"

Rouge considered it, even as he started to walk away.

Then he paused, and his ears perked up.

"What?" Rouge asked, genuinely curious.

Tempest, for the first time, seemed a bit nervous in his response. Pivoting, so she could see his full face, he bit back his question at first. But then followed through.

"What is your exact breed?" he asked, obviously expecting some kind of detailed answer.

"Duh… I'm a bat!" She flapped the small black wings attached to her shoulder blades.

"What type exactly?

Rouge looked at him curiously. This wasn't a question she got very often. Still, like any mobian, she knew the answer. "My father was Trachops…. My mother Desmodus."

"Trachops and Desmodus?" Tempest repeated. "I was curious, because I had thought most predatory bats to be a tropical species. You're pretty far north, aren't you?"

"What can I say?" Rouge shrugged. "My father liked The City."

The City obviously being Mobotropolis.

"Your father? Is he around here? Are there many of your kind near Knothole?"

"I don't know what happened to my father…" Rouge frowned. "As for you question, no: I haven't seen any other Phyllostomids up here, much less another Trachops. Why?"

Tempest cupped his chin and stared at her rather closely. "You seem very frail for a Predatory species, and yet you look mature enough, so I'm assuming you've already gone through most of your growth period. I'd assumed your kind got larger."

"Well, I like to keep in shape," Rouge said, watching him, a little surprised by the close attention. He hadn't seemed the type. "Not only would getting larger destroy my girlish figure, but it'd make it impossible to sneak around the way I need to."

"…a dishonorable, though unavoidable, profession," Tempest replied. "I take it then, that your kind are not, by nature, trustworthy? Or is it just the females of your species? You're the first I've yet met, and I'm curious about several things…"

"As far as I know only my father and I are… freelancers." Rouge smiled, slyly. "It's kind of the family business. I... I never did know my mother. I've never cared for the jungle, so I don't think I can help you that much."

"Hmmm." Tempest turned around again. "On second thought, it's probably best you put off talking to the boy for a little while. He's acting oddly, but still in the Turan'ha. You're not in heat, are you?"

Rouge winked at his back, putting on her best saucy smile when she saw him peek over his shoulder. "Why would you want to know that? Feeling lucky?"

"Are you in heat?" he asked again, not amused. "I can't tell by the unusual pheromones you're putting out."

Rouge sighed. "No, I'm not in heat. I just have a way with men. I find it sometimes helps in certain situations. Do the girls where you're from go around…" She paused. "They do? Well, that's kind of… weird…"

Tempest breathed a sigh of relief, ignoring her remarks about kitsune proclivities. "I'm just asking, because the last thing anyone needs is a bunch of halfbreeds running around. ...In any case, I'd like to stress that you should avoid the boy whenever he isn't working."

"The boy? You mean Tails?" Rouge blurted the name out. "Why would I have to avoid him? He's just a kid for crying out loud!"

Tempest eyes' twinkled dangerously. "He isn't in his right mind at the moment. I'm here to help him adjust."

Rouge's natural curiosity was obviously piqued. She had known something strange was going on with Tails, but any details were a particularly closely kept secret. "What's wrong with him?"

"Among our people, this point in life is very… how should I put this? Very febrile."

"Febrile?" Rouge asked. "I have no idea what that means."

"Very hot blooded."

"I still don't follow."

"Lascivious is a better word. Or maybe amorous? Randy?" Tempest groaned and raised a hand to massage his temple. "This is the point in his life where he looks for a mate, you see? Or he should, but shouldn't… Because his family up north already has an arranged marriage in mind for him. And… and what's so funny?"

Rouge held her sides as she tried to reign in her laugher. The expression on Tempest's face only made it worse. Then he said, "Oh, laugh it up. Real funny." And she had to fight to keep from falling over. Tempest just stood there, waiting for her to get it out of her system.

"Trust me, you don't have anything to worry about," Rouge said between laughs as she started to straighten up again. "He doesn't even like me! He'd… he'd probably chase after Mya before…" she broke into laughter again (what she found so funny, Tempest couldn't fathom).

"This is a more serious situation than you think," Tempest tried to reason with her, despite her apparent immunity. "I'm not kidding. I'd prefer other Second Racers keep away from him for the time being. Everything seems to be going well so far, and I'd like to keep it that way. Your pheromones would be like a drug, especially because he is more sensitive to it, growing up here among weaker scented prey. It would be an unhealthy situation."

"I get your point." Rouge nodded, finally forcing down her laughter. "I'll keep my distance from him."

"Good!" Tempest smiled. That settled, he started back the way he came.

Watching him go, Rouge inclined her head and took a long look. He wasn't exactly her type, but then again, her type was impossible to come by in this little neck of the woods. Still, he had some potential, and at the least could prove to be amusing. It was worrisome that he knew about what she was doing out here, but from what she'd heard he was an 'honor obsessed blowhard.' Granted, that had been from her overhearing Sonic, but it was probably mostly accurate.

Her instincts gave her a good impression of him.

And they hadn't failed her yet when it came to testing the waters of someone's personality. Even across species and breeds. It was one of the reasons why she still worked for Station Square, even though they couldn't even pay her anymore. She did have friends there: humans who had opened up to her, despite the widespread prejudice in their society against Mobians; humans who saw her as a partner and a friend, and not just another Mobian to use until she was no longer useful.

Not that Robotnick hadn't made any recent offers, too. But frankly, the Eggman's notorious tendency to backstab anyone and everyone he ever hired or worked with, and that creepy black furred monster he kept as an attack dog, weren't the best enticements. No: her days of playing for that team, even part time, were long since past. It was bad enough she had helped him get that one Emerald. It had been a moment of weakness on her part, and one she hoped to make up for in increments.

But she was almost positive Tempest wouldn't say anything.

Except… nothing beat being _sure_.

'Don't think this is the last you've seen of me, Mr-High-And-Mighty-Kitsune…' Rouge thought, and smiled. 'No one turns their back on me…'

* * *

Tails sat, motionless, reflecting on the most recent events.

It was the most difficult thing he had attempted all day, emptying his mind of thoughts and concentrating on his inner equilibrium. His natural inclination was for his thoughts to wander, often erratically, dwelling on non-Newtonian physics one moment, and information infrastructure the next. Like a swimming shark, he had to keep thinking, be it about strategy, technology, the past, the future, his friends or his enemies, but when he tried to stop, his mind rebelled, often sending his thoughts spiraling out of control.

It was worse, now. His focus threatened to dull. Unlike before, the culprit this time was not doubt in his own ability, but baser animal emotions. At his workstation, things went like they should – like clockwork. But now, when he moved among his staff, even when he stopped to try and get a drink, he found himself harboring base thoughts for peers he had previously only had a professional interest in.

Frustrated, he had taken a moment to see to a blood test.

Tempest had told him that kitsune had some sort of Tradition prohibiting the study of their 'blood' but Tails had no such restrictions. He **was** kitsune, but he was also a Mobian and a scientist. The idea that knowledge should be forbidden was an anathema to him, and understanding a problem was always the first step towards solving it. At the least, it would help him rationalize a response.

The results were incomplete, but not inconclusive.

His white blood cell count was extraordinarily high, and his system appeared to be doped with a mix of powerful sex and growth hormones. More troubling was the presence of what could only be called an as-yet undiscovered form of _lentivirus_. It wasn't just that he felt different; his body was literally changing, inside and out. Biology was little more than a passing interest to him, but even he knew this wasn't natural. No other Mobian breed underwent such a transformation.

'Is _this_ the Turan'ha?' he remembered thinking, mind racing with the possibilities. 'Some sort of… trans-genetic disease? A forced mutation?'

Sexual dimorphism was one thing, but this…!

So he cleared his mind. In time, he would get the answers he so desperately needed, but for the moment, he focused on his breathing, on a state of existence devoid of mental distractions. His eyes closed, he saw darkness and color, and the simplicity of nothingness. Even his hearing and sense of smell faded.

How long passed? It was irrelevant. When he was _done_, he felt refreshed. The lessons in combing and history he could have probably done without, (the cooking though, he was sort of looking forward to) but so far Tempest had taught him two fundamentally important things. The first was that fighting an enemy meant understanding him, learning from him, and then dismantling him at his weakest point. This was the sort of thing that came naturally to him to begin with. The second was the importance of a pure and focused mind that could tune out any distraction.

When he finally decided to open his eyes and see again, he saw Tempest sitting opposite him, mediating calmly. Easing out of the meditative state himself, Tails gradually let more thoughts sink in again. He had an appointment with Nail later in the night, where he hoped to glean yet more data regarding channeled forms of Chaos Control. There was also that project that should be nearing completion over at the 'Fab,' or Fabrication Facility. Then, of course, there were the ongoing efforts to catch the Rogues and those two others.

The Babylonians would be after a high profile target, probably one of the two Chaos Emeralds in Freedom Fighter hands. Both were under heavy guard in secret locations, but he knew the Rogues had a way of getting where they wanted to go, no matter the security arrangements. The other two, his men were hunting outside the city. There had been promising reports about near misses, indicating they were after some sort of contraband or artifact.

'The scepter Fiona mentioned overhearing,' Tails thought. 'Not that there aren't any number of artifacts out there that could be called a scepter.'

Tails had an ongoing interest in the many ruins he and Sonic had adventured through over the years. Marble Garden had started the fascination, and after the Death Egg affair, he had gone back to check out the 'labyrinth zone' Sonic had found on one of his solo adventures. Those ruins had been from the pre-Mogulian era, fortunately dredged up largely intact by Robotnick's industrial explorations, and were thus of substantial academic interest (despite the many traps and few remaining badnicks).

He was also well aware that many artifacts, from ruins and from pre-war collections and museums were now in circulation on the Black Market. There was little to nothing that could be done about it – the war, resettlement, and rebuilding took up all the effort the cause could spare. There was little manpower to throw at a criminal underground that basically smuggled, but committed few physical crimes. So the traffic thrived, and would likely continue well into the future.

But that didn't explain why anyone would go through so much trouble to get this scepter. His men had uncovered the fact that the two expected to get the artifact via the Black Market, which left the question of why the raid on the data vault? Did they trade some information they obtained on it for the scepter? That was probable. Robotnick would certainly part with generous amounts of raw materials: platinum, gold, even power rings, for valuable information. But he had heard that even the Black Market wasn't keeping the Eggman in the loop anymore, thanks to his tendency to 'tie up loose ends' and liquidate business partners.

Were they just mercenaries working with the Rogues, spending their ill gotten gains on some more-valuable-than-expected artifact? The artifact trade could be profitable… but that still seemed unlikely. These two were no ordinary crooks. How they had gotten away from no less than three attack/recon helicopters and a battalion of police still baffled him. No: until he could see otherwise, it was best to treat them as being as dangerous as the Babylon Rogues themselves.

Tails propped his arm on one knee. "Food?"

By this time, Tempest was likewise up and alert. "A fine idea."

"How about deer?"

"Sounds good to me."

Tempest and Tails slowly stood up, stretched, and headed for the forest and one of the game trails they had identified.

"Interesting smell on you. Let me guess… Rouge?" Tails asked.

Tempest chuckled. "You can probably guess how we met."

"Did she flash her cleavage at you while you were working?"

That guess came as a surprise; Tempest soughed loudly.

"No. Not quite."

Tails laughed, this time. "Ah. That was how we met, that first time. One moment I was standing there, waiting to see the President, and then the next thing I know I turn around and I've got titties in my face. Of course, at the time I totally freaked out."

"Was it on purpose, or…?"

Tails laughed even harder. "No! No! She didn't even see me! I was like this!"

He held his hand out at around chest level.

"So she walked right into me. Quite an introduction!"

Tempest 'hmm'ed and asked, a little jadedly, "You interacted with her much after that?"

"Not really," the younger kitsune admitted. "She worked in GUN's MilIntel Department. Black Ops and the like. I only ran into her that one time because we were consecutive appointments, meeting with the President of the city. I did a lot of R&D for GUN back then, including their Black Ops division…"

He rolled his shoulders.

"Man, if they had built even half the things they had me design for them… that'd be one Hell of a sight to see! One time, they got me to build this drilling machine in a scheme to covertly insert troops anywhere in the globe! Nothing those humans loved more than a crazy wonder weapon!"

Tails seemed to regard the whole thing as quite a fond experience.

"Of course, I always had the thought: maybe one day they'll use these to fight us, you know? But beating the Eggman has always been the important thing. We outnumber the humans by 1000:1 anyway." He shrugged. "Rogue probably thought the same thing, I guess. But no, we didn't run into each other again like that for a while. Not until after I came back here."

"You mean here, as in Knothole?" Tempest asked.

"Yeah. I came back after Station Square fell..." Tails nodded to himself as he followed his mentor. "I'd gotten in touch with the King, and he'd shown an interest in modernizing his forces. So Rogue… she showed up almost a year ago when we were hunting for the blue Chaos Emerald. The sapphire colored one, not the light blue one."

"Anyway, Robotnick had put out a bounty on it, and a bunch of mercenaries and thieves got in on the fun. It kind of switched hands a bunch of times… Rouge ended up with it for a while, before Sonic and Sally managed to get it and spirit it back here. I wasn't there for that one – I was… meeting someone on Angel Island at the time – but I was around the second time we ran into her."

"The Yellow Topaz Emerald was rumored to be on this island resort type deal. Sally took Sonic and I tagged along to investigate and to provide the usual tech support since Sonic couldn't find his ass with both hands and a map. Then there's the fact that Sonic still can't swim, and Sally can't run, so… 'Let's use your plane, Tails!' And let's get crumbs on the seats, too, while we're at it!"

"Do you have any idea how hard crumbs are to get out of the seats on my Tornado Custom? I still find them in there to this day!" Tails gave an exasperated sigh. "Anyway, once we got there, it was actually a really nice place… reminded me a bit of the good parts of West Island… Sally signed us up as 'guests' staying there, along with a couple other bounty hunters who had heard the same rumors. Rouge was one of them, and of course she and Sally ended up fighting over something or another. Thank the Source Amy wasn't there, too. Long story short, Shadow and a legion of bots show up, firebomb half the island, and somehow get the Emerald."

Tempest had heard Shadow mentioned numerous times in passing, and always associated with some disaster or another. The kitsune could guess that he was some kind of evil Sonic like creature. He was another trouble making Chaos Adept, in other words.

"I didn't see her for a while after that," Tails continued. "Then a couple months ago we caught wind of yet another Emerald, this time in Downunda. Sonic was busy with Metal Sonic at the time, so I headed there myself. There were these… creatures called the Black Arms, and the local Freedom Fighters there need reinforcement. I got as many ships and men together as I could, and we took the fight to the Black Arms **and** the Eggman Empire. It's another long story…"

Tails shook his head, willing to remember the memories, but not the feelings they conjured up. "I managed to get that one, the purple Emerald – Amethyst, I guess - and bring it back to Knothole. But we lost… a lot of people."

He had cried when they died, even after everything with Barby…

"Anyway," he got back on topic, perking up a bit. "Rouge somehow tracked us back to Knothole. I've always suspected she can somehow sense Chaos Energy and that's how she did it. I wasn't really there for all the drama that followed, but the way I hear it, she threatened to blackmail us or something… you know: tell Robotnick about Knothole's secrets and defenses was unless we gave her a share of the royal treasury." Tails scoffed loudly. "Not that there IS much of a royal treasury at the moment. But she wanted money, and Sally was pissed off about the whole thing. She and Rouge got into a big fight, until Sonic jumped in and separated them."

"Sonic separated them?" Tempest asked, not believing it. "Those two?"

"Yeah! It was a real catfight!" Tails laughed. "But Sonic didn't want Sally getting hurt, I guess. He jumped in and ended up kicked in the balls! Sonic's a brave guy, but he doesn't always think before he acts."

"So, we thought Rouge would go to Robotropolis after that and spill the beans. Sonic, a couple others, and myself headed there to make sure nothing came of it. Turns out Rouge didn't have the guts to… well, that's not fair. Basically, she didn't tell Robotnick anything when push came to shove. She just fed him a bunch of lies, and naturally Buttnick got the old red-eye crazy madness. Really popped a vein. He was threatening to roboticize her when we busted in and saved her ass. She agreed to keep the secret, and offer her services at 'a discount.'"

"Wonderful." Tempest intoned.

"She's pretty handy from time to time. Sally still doesn't like her, or trust her, for obvious reasons. Sonic usually vouches for her, though, so he trusts her. Enough to give her an invite to his monthly house party, even. She might have a thing for him, after he saved her from Buttnick." Tails frowned a bit. "Females are stupid like that, when it comes to him."

"Feh." Tempest rolled his eyes. "It is not my concern what the Princess thinks of her, or that little blue rodent. I told you to avoid her, so you will."

"Sure thing. It shouldn't be a problem."

"Good." Tempest and his charge finally reached the game trail. "Take the lead. Concentrate on the hunt. We can worry about other things over the roasting meat of the kill."

The hunt was rather brisk - the prey in the area unused to being hunted, but despite that shortcoming, the young deer they caught had been lean and unusually good. Nearly the entire animal had been consumed over the course of their conversation out in the woods, and it would be another day and a half before they were truly hungry again. Tempest had spent a fair amount of that time talking with Tails about the specialization Nail would bring to his training, as well as the more 'spiritual' edge he knew the boy needed, even if he was reluctant to admit it.

They had spent the majority of the time practicing the kitsune take on telepathy, which Tails actually found closer to empathy. Tempest had described it as being principally another hunting and organizational tool: it allowed hunters to know where each other were and what they were doing. In both males and females, Tempest explained, it was common for emotional attachments to form the foundation of pack bonds, allowing groups of kitsune to operate almost as a single unit. The more Tails heard, the more he saw that it was also an essential link in kitsune society, keeping all the cogs and gears running smoothly and without interruption.

It was no wonder kitsune society had remained unchanged for thousands of years. The young fox was certain that almost everything about the kitsune was organized towards ensuring that they never changed. Their sexual mores and obsession with heirs formed a natural cycle of birth control, their ritual sire-killing and blood feuds, even their unusual traditions regarding food gathering, were all a normalizing population control. Kitsune respected strength in society, using it as the foundation of acceptable ethics. A 'good' kitsune was simply a strong one who did not deviate from Tradition. When Tails had asked where many of these Traditions came from, Tempest had simply shrugged and answered, 'from time immemorial.'

That sort of answer may have served for most kitsune, brought up as they were, but Tails could not be satisfied with half answers. Who **had** come up with these kitsune traditions? Who had taught them the techniques of sensing weakness in an enemy, and then attacking them, using the enemy's own fear against him? For his part, Tempest did not know what the _amygdalae_ was, but he knew techniques for manipulating emotional and memory response that Tails, with his full knowledge of mobian physiology, had not even considered. Hours later, Tempest's training, as enlightening as it had been, left as many questions as answers. Still, Tails was confident that he would uncover the truth of his people, and of his own background, in good time.

The two walked back toward the Ring Pool and Nail meet them half way there.

Nail waved at their approach. "Back from a hunt I see."

Tails, unusually relaxed and content, smiled. "Yeah."

"Went well?" The echidna asked.

Tails picked his teeth with a gloveless finger. "Oh yeah. Learned how to cook ribs, too…"

"Glad to hear it."

Nail then turned around and was silent for a few moments. Tails looked at him oddly for a second, his finger finally picking the bit of sinew out from around one of his canines. Nail then suddenly spun around and fired an energy bolt at the young Kitsune. Shocked, Tails was barely able to dodge, then jumped toward Nail to tackle him, but was blasted in the face by another energy bolt. The fox fell to the ground; smoking slightly, but quickly picked himself up again.

"You walked right into that one!" Nails snapped. "…It's just what I thought."

"That you're a complete dick?" Tails still didn't get what was going on. "What'd you do that for?!"

Nail's frown tightened.

"These hunts you go on. They may be good for your reflexes and instincts, but you get so caught up in your victory that you lose track of any attack that may pop up. You need to learn to let go of past battles and focus on future ones."

Tempest crossed his arms. "He needs an outlet, Nail. And we only have this one meal for the entire day. The boy's just on a little blood high. It's healthy. We all get it."

"Yeah!" Tails jumped in on his own defense.

Tempest turned on his student. "Turo! Next time he does that, grab for the wrists, not the torso. Break his hands or arms and he's helpless. This isn't rocket science. And I _know_ you're a rocket scientist."

"I... er…"

Nail spoke up, interrupting the boy. "All the outlets in the world won't help him if he doesn't focus on the here and now. An enemy can turn up anytime. And some of them can't be seen or smelt. You have to feel their presence. At all times."

"Still, you don't need to attack the boy right after he's eaten. Lords of the Ice knows what those energy blasts of yours are doing to stunt his growth! That's radiation!" Tempest pointed at him. "You're right, of course, but the approach leaves something to be desired. He's only about three-fourths through his Turan ha. Two or three days from now, you can blast him all you want, but for now, keep it to a minimum, is that clear? Unless you want him growing a third tail or something!"

Tails felt a sweatdrop roll down the side of his head. 'Third tail…?'

Nail sighed. "Fine. But don't expect that kind of sympathy from Robotnik, Mastermind, or any of their flunkies. Especially Shadow."

"Are you talking to me?" Tails interrupted, getting back to his feet. "You **do** know I've been fighting Robotnick longer than you've technically been alive, right?"

Tempest turned and started walking to the main huts in Knothole. "You can have the night off, Miles. Feel free to do as you like."

"Alright!" Tails flipped to his feet, and was about to also walk off, when Nail grabbed him by the shoulder.

"He may have given you the night off. But I didn't. Or did you forget?"

To his amazement, Tails realized that he had. He did an abrupt one-eighty. "Ok. You've got my attention."

"Good." The echidna smiled mysteriously. "There's some special training I want to work on tonight."

"What …kind of training?" Tails eyes narrowed very slightly, and then relaxed. It could be useful after all.

"You'll see."

"Ok, ok... I'm all ears…" Tails folded his ears against his head and back up again. The training began as they walked, with a review of several works of literature Nail had asked him to become familiar with. All of it was what Tails had normally considered to be of dubious scholarship. Nonetheless, despite his initial disdain for anything reeking of the occult or mysticism, had had read through the entire curriculum while working on other projects an overseeing arrangements for the capture of the Rogues and their two accomplices.

"I'm just a natural skeptic, Nail. You know that."

"You also know that the science of understanding the Chaos Force is incomplete. You never expected there was anything to learn from anything besides an academic paper or journal?"

"The books you suggested all contradict each other. Science does not contradict itself."

Nail agreed, however, "They are only the deceptive tip of the iceberg. What we will do together, is separate the grains of truth from the less than authoritarian whole. You studied the Mesmer Codex, didn't you?"

"Mesmerism doesn't exist," Tails insisted, if only by rote. "It's been debunked many times."

"Take a step back and consider the existence of a force, capable of manipulating the fluids in your body, the images you see, and even reality itself. You should at least be receptive to the possibility that the Chaos Force, which permeated all of Mobius if not the cosmos itself, is at the root of many belief systems. This includes the specific forms of Mesmerism outlined in the Codex."

Nail offered the technically older (he was a clone after all) fox a knowing look. "You are open to the possibility, aren't you? As a man of science?"

"Of course, its just as possible that the universe was created in a fit of pique five seconds ago, and that we were created with memories that never happened. Pretty much anything is 'possible.' I prefer what can be objectively proven, and repeatedly demonstrated."

"Reminds me of…" but Nail cut himself off.

"Mya, right?" Tails guessed, and Nail's expression turned down.

"You… knew her, didn't you? From before."

"I worked with her on a few things." Tails hesitated to say more. He didn't want to say either too much or too little about Nail's 'mother.' "She was always… ambitious. A genius, but the kind people naturally became somewhat wary of. "

They stopped at an area by the ring pool but up against the woods. They then sat and talked, primarily about different philosophies, and how different cultures saw the Chaos Force. In the latter respect, Nail outlined the differences that arose between Chaos Users from different backgrounds, especially the differences between the echidna and mainland mobians. Tails suspected Athair was behind a lot of what Nail had to say, but he listened carefully and with an academic mindset, searching equally for both connections and flaws. They then talked about the world's three principal religions: Source worship in its two main forms, the Mogulian Cults (including the Order of Ixis), and the Aurora and Walker worship of the echidna.

Only then, with theories in place (not that Tails enjoyed calling them that), did they begin to train. It was a give and take sort of training, as they explored different concepts, tested and refined them; Nail providing one form of insight, and Tails the other. The kitsune fox immediately began to delve deeper into the mechanics of Nails' own particular brand of Chaos Control, different as it was from what he was accustomed to. He began to see that Nail was both weaker and more refined than a pure Chaos Adept, like Sonic or Knuckles. Unable to actualize energy within himself, he had to form and sustain it externally as he channeled it.

Tails found it much more difficult than using the energy to augment his own natural abilities. It also reminded him of Shadow's "Chaos Spear" attack, a manifestation of chaos energy that Tails had never seen in Sonic, Knuckles, or even Mammoth Mogul (who vastly outstripped everyone in raw experience). After struggling to manifest chaos energy in any significant way outside his body, Tails was on the verge of giving up. Or to be more exact, he was on the verge of running off to build a machine that would do most of the work for him.

Nail stood up, walked a short distance, and returned, holding a small rock. "This should do. Take it."

"It's just a rock," Tails grumbled, but held out his right hand. Nail dropped it into his hand.

"Close your eyes and concentrate on it."

"What?" Tails looked at Nail like he was missing a few marbles. "Why?"

"Just do it."

Tails closed his eyes. Picturing the rock in his mind, Tails paused. What was he supposed to do now, anyway? For a moment, he gritted his teeth, frustrated. "Nothing is happening, is it?"

Opening his eyes, Tails confirmed it.

"Try again," Nail urged. "Imagine that the rock is an extension of yourself. Channel energy into it."

Tails did, or tried to.

'Focus…'

"You can do it. Just keep trying."

Tails grumbled, but tried again. And again. As the minutes passed, and passed… and passed, approaching an hour, it got easier to focus on the object, but still nothing was happening. Finally, Tails' patience ran out.

"This... isn't... working!!"

"Concentrate," Nail repeated.

Tails snarled, breathing deeply. It was fruitless just sitting around and failing at something! If he just had his lab, his workstation, some equipment…! Angry, but determined to get on with the rest of the night, Tails saw the rock again in his mind... sitting lazily in his hand, immobile, immovable. Gritting his teeth, clenching his fists, the boy imagined it splitting down the middle, cracking, heaving, EXPLODING!

"Wraah!" Nail stumbled back, his mind literally on fire. He didn't see it through the pain, but he did hear Tails hiss in similar agony and shock. Except, when he opened his eyes, Nail saw that the boy's cry wasn't due to the lash of telepathic chaos energy that had buffeted the echidna – in Tails' right hand, the rock was split into five pieces, and shards of it were stuck in his fingers.

In Knothole itself, Tempest looked out the window, feeling the surge of mental energy. For him, though, the wave of chaos energy seemed only a dull tingle of sensation, filtered through the lens of kitsune insensitivity. It was nonetheless significant enough to earn a curious look.

'It shouldn't have been…'

Back at the Ring Pool, Nail held the side of his head, in obvious pain.

Tails slowly opened his eyes. "So: that was it. Emotional response, just like before..."

And then, without warning, the fox passed out. Slowly, the soundless scream faded, and Nail's mind cleared. The world was still spinning, but slowly his equilibrium was returning to normal. Lowering his hand despite the headache he now had, Nail blinked a few times.

"Oh... Walkers... what was that?" The echidna looked down at the unconscious Tails. "Better bring him back…"

Picking the slightly larger-than-he-was kitsune up in a fireman carry and heading back to the city, Nail grimaced.

'I'm still not use to this kid being larger than me,' he thought as he walked. 'Now, where do I take him? I could take him to Sonic or Sally's but then I'd have to explain this whole thing… Hell, I'm not even sure what happened. Hmm, maybe I just better take him to Tempest.'

In the main room of his hut, Tempest sat down on the floor and closed his eyes. 'Odd... Chara... Chara?'

A second later.

A thought later…

'Tempest'

'Did you just call out to me?' he mentally asked.

'Why would I do that? Like I have nothing better to do than bother you on your little quest,' her thought/voice laughed. 'No, I didn't try and contact you. It must've been someone else'

'I see... did I catch you at a bad time, little sister?'

'Sort of. Errapel Se'Jando was trying to Claim me again. I just finished beating him up'

'You don't make it easy for them, do you?'

'Of course not! Besides, I'm almost positive that mother put Errapel up to it. She looks almost disappointed, standing there by the sidelines. No grandchildren for her this time'

'You'll have to mate someday, Chara'

'You will, too, big brother… oops. Gotta go…'

Keep well Tempest severed the link and took a deep breath. Mental telecommunication took more out of him than most purely physical activities. If it wasn't his sister then who was it? He didn't have a Bond with that many Kitsune. Mother seemed unlikely. He doubted it was Sakeri. That only left the boy. But as admirable as Tails' skills were, he hadn't been taught how to… Halfway through that thought, the door suddenly flew open and Tempest saw Nail staying there with Tails thrown over his shoulder. The echidna put the fox down in front of him, and then looked at Tempest.

Tempest stood up and looked down at the boy. "What's this?"

Nail did the same. "You tell me."

Tempest looked more closely at Tails. "At least he's breathing… I told you not to blast him anymore! What happened out there?!"

"I didn't blast him!" Nail countered. "I was training him. I thought he was... like me - constantly drawing power from the Chaos Emeralds, even remotely. But when I tried to get him to manipulate energy, focusing on a rock... something happened. It felt like my mind was on fire! I want to know what it was."

Tempest's eyes widened. "Oh…!"

Almost gently, he lifted Tails' unconscious form and laid him down on the hut's bed.

"Our mental abilities," he said, voice hollow. "We all have it, mostly for communication. Limited Telepathy. You know about that… But he shouldn't have developed it this acutely yet. Not beyond the basics. Damn it... Pray the boy did not end up with a Mind Wipe... If he did... We'd have to..."

"To what?" Nail asked.

"To be honest," Tempest's eyes closed. "I'd have to kill him."

Nail gasped. "What?! Why?"

"A mind wipe," Tempest said again. "I was told that if one of us taps into their psionics too early, to too much, it totally blanks the mind. He could wake up... a wild animal. No thoughts at all; only instinct. It's... it's not exactly like your powers, Nail. Your tricks come from those Chaos Gems, but we work differently. There are things we are capable of doing, and things we simply can not do."

Tempest rested his hand on Tails' forehead in an uncharacteristic display of affection.

"We'll… just have to keep an eye on him."

Nail lowered his eyes. "Tempest... Tails isn't just kitsune. He's one of the world's most powerful Chaos Users. He's transformed before, and I'm certain that's something kitsune don't normally do."

"I didn't expect there would be such a sharp conflict between the two." Tempest sighed heavily.

"I'd like to stay, if that's fine with you."

Tempest pulled up a chair and sat. "Then we will wait... Nail. I want you to know two things. First, if he has had a Mind Wipe, you'll know. Believe me, you will. We'll have to kill him, or he'll escape and likely kill others here. With his abilities, you can probably imagine the havoc that would result."

Nail could.

"You'll have to fight him without hesitation. Can you do that?"

The echidna thought about it for a second or two. "If I'm the one responsible for this, then I'll help deal with it. What else?"

"If he is a Blank..." Tempest didn't turn to face the echidna. "I'll kill you next."

Nail nodded solemnly. "If he is, I won't stop you."

Times passed. Unconscious, Tails neither thrashed nor moved in any way. He seemed almost comatose. Only his breathing remained, regular and stready.

"Pity he isn't Vidar…" Tempest broke the silence. "He's... he's a good kid."

Nail had also taken a seat, bringing it in from another hut. "Yeah, he is. Didn't complain all **that** much when I started training him, and with you here he's seems to be taking it even better… Athair always said he was special, unique, even among his peers. I can see he'll become something truly exceptional. Provided he survives this."

Tempest paused lengthily before he answered. "Maybe I'm getting soft. My father never pampered me like this boy is... he should be out in the woods, not in some soft bed... living among the Prey... like a… a… Keionah..."

"Keionah?" Nail asked. "What is that?"

Tempest barked out a short laugh. "Keionah. It is the name of someone in a story… a kitsune parable."

Nail didn't ask, but Tempest explained.

"The story is that a long time ago…" Tempest grinned a bit; these stories were always 'a long time ago.' Weren't there any contemporary stories? "There was a clever and crafty wild dog with a dark black coat, and his name was Keionah. One day, he left his pack to hunt on his own. After a few days of not finding prey, he smelled a ram nearby, and tracked it down. When he found the white ram, he attacked it. The prey fought well, but in the end Keionah subdued it, and made ready to kill it."

"He then told the ram, 'You have been great and mighty prey. What is your name, and where is your herd? Save me the trouble of having to track them down, and on my honor I shall spare one of your choice.' The mortally mounted ram thought about what the wild dog had said, and reluctantly agreed. He told the predator, 'My name is Mago. My herd lives to the south, and grazes in a sun-bathed field between three great wooded hills and next to a cliff. Though I was sent to scout for new areas to graze, you have killed me. I beg you now to spare my mate.'"

"Keionah agreed, because he had promised to spare one of the herd, and to never kill that animal in all his days. He asked the dying ram what his mate looked like, and the white ram replied, 'My mate is the most beautiful and fair of my herd. She is dark as the night, and gentle as the dawn.' The ram then died. After feasting on his most worthy kill, Keionah suddenly came upon an idea. He would disguise himself as the white ram, hide among the sheep of his herd, and never lack for food."

"Several days later, after fashioning a particularly clever disguise from the skin and white pelt, Keionah found the secluded field the ram spoke of. There in the field was the ram's herd, and there were many lambs there awaiting dispatch. Surely, he thought, he would never want for food in this place! He also saw the ram's mate – a black sheep, the only one in the herd. Keionah was pleased, both because none of the sheep saw through his disguise, and because the black sheep whose mate he was pretending to be had the same color of fur as he did. And her name was Yona."

"So Keionah stayed amid the herd, and pretended to be Yona's mate. He would pretend to eat along with the others in the field, but when he grew hungry, he would stealthily steal a young lamb from the herd under cover of darkness. Despite this, which he did to survive, he found himself becoming protective of the herd, and of his mate Yona. One day, when a lone wolf, Cho'vin, came to attack the herd, Keionah confronted him. The two fought, and Keionah chased Cho'vin into the nearby forest."

"There, one of the tree's branches caught on Keionah's disguise, and Cho'vin saw that this white ram was actually a black wild dog. Cho'vin introduced himself, his titles and his lineage, and Keionah did the same. Cho'vin quickly figured out what Keionah was doing, and admitting that it was, indeed, very clever, asked if they could share predation on the herd. This was because Cho'vin had found no other prey in the area, and was very hungry. The herd was large, he argued, too large for Keionah to keep all for himself. Keionah, however, did not want to share the herd, and he did not want Cho'vin to take even one lamb. So Keionah, who was very crafty, told Cho'vin to attack at midnight that night."

"Cho'vin agreed, and that night, he attacked the herd hoping to take a lamb. But Keionah had betrayed Cho'vin, and lied to him. He warned the other rams of the herd, and with Keionah leading them they trapped Cho'vin and trampled him to death. With the wolf dead, Keionah was happy and proud, and lay with his mate that night."

"Many weeks later, he learned that Yona was with children, and Keionah was again filled with joy. Soon he would have an Heir. He waited until the appointed day, and refrained even from taking the occasional young lamb under the cover of darkness. On that day, Yona gave birth to an Heir, and it was a white fleeced male lamb. In that moment, Keionah realized all he had done, and what he had become – not cunning Keionah the wild dog, be had become Mago, the ram of sheep. His Heir was not his own! Keionah yowled when he looked upon the lamb, and hungry as he was, devoured it. Then, overcome by grief and shame, Keionah threw himself from the nearby cliff."

"And that is the story of Keionah," Tempest said, and then added, "All kitsune children are taught that story at an early age."

Tempest reached out to the still unconscious young vulpine lying on the bed and placed his hand on Tails' head. "This boy… he did not hear that story until he was an adult. Which is why I fear for him."

Nail was silent for a few seconds. "Tails will survive this."

"Miles will survive this…" Tempest said, forcing the words through gritted teeth. "I will not fail in this Quest. The boy is strong… strong as iron… Miles Na'Turo will survive this."

* * *


	13. Nothing Else iii

* * *

**It was just like before.**

_The shadows moved through the forest with the grace and fluid ease that was their birthright. From thick branch to tree trunk, the two larger shadows leaped, only the occasional bird taking to the air witness to their passage. The sounds of far off battle were louder now, and individual explosions more distinct. It was the sounds of war, and they were fast approaching it. _

_Finally, one signaled to the other to take a quick rest. _

_Perched on the same sturdy tree trunk, high above the forest floor, they caught their breath. Slowly, one of them reached behind and held a third shadow closely. Its head lowered, caught one of the shafts of light from above, and a long lock of dark orange hair fell forward only partly concealing one blue eye. Dark lashes blinked, and the female ex-shadow looked down at the bundle in her arms. _

_"Is it wise to take him with us, Eblis? He is still so young." _

_The other shadow grunted a response._

_ "Moma?" Black eyes looked up at her, and a hand, tufted with orange fur, reached for her own. She looked to the other shadow, features momentarily hidden._

_Still in the darkness, the other figure slowly shook his head. "You know we could not, __Aurora__. He had power within him. I am not the only one who knows it. Who… feels it, like a fire in my bones, like ice in my mind…"_

_The other shadow sighed and nodded. _

_"Now." The male of the pair tensed to jump. "Let's get moving. Our target is close enough for me to smell his stink..."_

**Memories.**

_"You brought this upon yourself!"_

_ Chained. Broken. Unbeaten._

_ "No prison may contain me! I will escape."_

_ The vast chamber is aglow with energy; the life energy of tens of thousands, consumed in The Binding. Their souls encircled his wrists, his ankles, his legs, his arms, his throat, his wings… their hate and their agony bound him. Torrents of chaos energy swirled like the sea, buffeting the walls of the vast chamber; vast enough to swallow a small mountain._

_ "Time…?" A shadowed form, indistinct but indescribably imposing, held one hand up between them. "That is something you do not have. For your crimes, and your betrayal, I shall seal you within this tomb of your own making… The souls of your victims will be your jailer, and you shall remain here, forever, imprisoned **between time**."_

_ He just laughed at the threat, mouth full of razor teeth and toxic fumes._

_ "Then do it, my old Master. And I shall return the favor. **Your** tomb will be your **world**!"_

_ "Such a shame." The indistinct figure closed his hand into a fist. "You had so much… promise…"_

_ Ethereal steel pierced his wrists, his chest, his face, pinning him to the great sarcophagus. Light filled the chamber, cutting and twisting in a thousand different colors and directions. For a moment there was only blinding light and the endless howling of the slain… and then darkness and silence as the lib closed, entombing him completely._

_ Hung high above Never Lake, the Little Planet screamed and vanished._

**No, not mine…**

_The male shadow led the pair. _

_When the time came, it was his responsibility to get their trophy. His mate needed only cover his back and mind the little one. They were doing this; he was doing this, for him after all – for his young heir. It would be terribly inconvenient if the brat were to die after all his parents' hard work. Oh, they could have another, but there would be no guarantee that he would be as strong, and have as much potential, as their present one. _

_And, though the male would not admit it to any save his mate, the thought of the child meeting an ignoble end… moved him. The brat was HIS. He was HIS to mold and shape and create into the perfect warrior. Miles was HIS Heir. And Eblis was Miles' father. When the time came, the latter would take the former's life, and Eblis would live on through his son. Into eternity… _

_The dream of every father._

_Eblis balanced perfectly on a branch and sniffed the air. Yes: it was that way. He would take the head of his most worthy Prey. It would elevate the small family and prove their strength to the extended Family, and to the Clan as a whole. Eblis Prower's fist clenched tightly and the wood beneath him groaned in protest. His grip relaxed, and his mind cleared. The discipline of his training kicked in._

_His mate landed softly next to him._

_It galled him that she and he were nearly the same size. Kitsune females were smaller than males. It was the way of things. They just didn't grow as much during the Rutting. But she was of fair build, and of even fairer appearance. She was a mate he didn't deserve. He was skilled in the arts of combat, but physically… he knew he was not the largest. He knew his tails were not the strongest or the most broad. He knew his coat was not the most lustrous, or even his claws and teeth the sharpest. _

_He was the runt of the Family._

_As nobles came, he was… mediocre._

_And she had made it clear to the other males during their mutual Turan'ha, many seasons ago, that she wanted him. He wasn't even going to try, but she wanted him. Looking at her out of the corner of his eyes, watching her balance next to him, their kit held close to her, he felt his heart swell with pride. And… and… She caught his eye as he thought about what that other feeling was, and smiled that little knowing smile of hers. He snorted a little too loudly, and looked forward. _

_"What're you smiling about, woman?" He growled quietly._

_She replied after a second. "Nothing, husband."_

_"Good. We're close." He narrowed his eyes and leaped through the air. He was breathing heavily now, but not from exertion. Anticipation. This was it! Time to prove himself… time to advance his lineage! Runt, was he? They would all soon see the power of his blood. Runt was he? His son, his boy, his Heir… would tear their throats out! He would bathe in their blood, and revel in the cries of their mates and the deaths of their bloodlines! He would be Ephor Anthal! _

_And more!_

_Eblis knew this would all come to pass. It was destiny. It was fate! As sure as his dreams of the Prophetic Comet streaking through the sky, he knew that through his son Miles, the Blood of Eblis Se'Prower would shake this world of Mobius to its very foundations!_

**Where am I?**

_"How many have I asked to make the ultimate sacrifice?" It was his own voice, but he had never spoken these words. "How many have I manipulated into doing so? There is only one justification for everything I have done, and everything I will do. Transcendence - the belief that there are things more important than any individual life, even my own."_

_ "Can you live with yourself? Doing this?"_

**What am I?**

_"Live with myself? Lara, **I will exist** because of what I now do."_

**Why am I…?**

_Miles clung to his mother's fur for dear life._

_ Inhaling sharply at she made another great leap over the ground, he knew, by sent alone, that they were far from home. It was warmer here, and the forest, though it looked very similar, did not smell the same. It made him nervous, and his grip on his mother got that much tighter. He felt more than heard her huff in annoyance, and stop for a second. He adjusted his position, and felt her comforting hand on his small shoulder – a reassurance that he would not fall. Her twin tails reached up and, even if only for a moment, made him feel like he was back at home. _

_ He then heard his father growl._

_ They had to keep moving. Young as he was, Miles recognized that. Father was leading them on a Hunt. It wasn't his first, he'd gone on two others since he had been weaned, but this Hunt was different. He wanted ask, but lacked the words. Mother's presence and gentle thoughts helped, but on some primal level, he wanted to be of use. He wanted to know what they were doing and contribute. _

_ In his mind, he heard her._

_ "There, there, my little tails…"_

_ The name and tone could and would only belong to his mother. Father would never say such a silly thing. He had his own nickname for Miles. He was… he was… what had Father called him? _

_ Heir._

_ Yes. He was the Heir. He smiled back at Mother, and a second later they took off again. He resolved himself to watch. One day he would help. One day he would Hunt. That day just wasn't today. But that fact no longer bothered him. They knew that, in time, he would take his place by their side_

_ Little Tails…_

**To me…**

_ The first barrage of fire coincided with a far off explosion. _

_Caught in mid leap, the two kitsune shifted immediately to the present threat. It was both a conscious decision, and an instinctive one. Momentum through the air unchangeable, they instantly adjusted their balance, and instead of landing on their target branch softly, broke right through it for the cover of the forest floor, and the dense underbrush of the __Great__Forest__. The fire stopped as quickly as it had begun._

_The two kitsune sniffed, as one, on a level that shared thoughts and emotions. This was their bond and their link, and it was at its strongest only in battle. Individually, a kitsune was a formidable foe, but in groups their true strength… their pack mentality… became truly manifest. _

_'What is happening?' The male snarled to his mate, keeping low and behind cover. 'I smell only corpses from that direction!'_

_'They conceal their scent!' The female answered. _

_Common sense. _

_'Damn. How did they know…?'_

_She shook her head. 'They are going to encircle us. Cut off retreat.'_

_It took only a moment for a mutual course of action to be settled on. Hands on the ground in front of him, the male howled, and raced forward. Muscles bunched, tendons strained, and mind aflame he charged in the name of his pride, his blood, and his race. Speed had always been Eblis' ally. A thin frame by kitsune standards, it mattered little in a fight against most normal mobians. The claws on his hands and feet dug into the ground as he ran, sliced through bark as he jumped off a tree, and tensed as he finally caught sight of the enemy._

**That's right. To me…**

_"Nothing else matters."_

**And so I…**

_Miles felt his mother leap, higher than he had ever known she could, powerful leg muscles propelling her high into the air. Looking down, he saw, over her arm, twin tails swishing in the air. And, further behind, automatic fire tearing through the air. His mind let out a panicked cry, but his mother did not stop, could not stop, moving. Grabbing a high branch, __Aurora__ flipped around, built up her momentum, and shot back down towards the ground. _

_ Everything had gone wrong._

_ They were all around her, standing in the darkness with glowing green eyes. There were too many to fight; to many to escape from. Eblis had made to attack one of them, and passed right through it. It was like living shadow, except the next instant, the experienced warrior had hissed and flown back, tossed like a rag doll. __Aurora__ couldn't believe it. This wasn't supposed to be happening. Merlin had told her…_

_ Turning, watching the figures all around her, Aurora reached behind her back. Males were forbidden to carry true weapons of war, but the same was not true of kitsune females. When she had heard who their target was – Field Marshal Julian Kintobor of the Mobian Army – it had always been her duty to take the shot that would actually assassinate the overlander. Merlin and the Elders had commanded it, and specifically requested she and Eblis see to it._

_ "That's pointless…" a voice said, in the language of the kitsune._

_ She saw him emerge from the shadows. He was kitsune, like her, like Eblis. He held out empty glove-less hands, but his stance and the feeling he gave her sent chills up her spine. She felt Miles clung to her even more tightly, as he too felt it. It was like death. This unassuming kitsune, with plain white tipped tails and a medium build… he was death itself._

_ "I'm sorry," he said, and __Aurora__ saw something in his blue eyes. _

_Something familiar. _

_ "But… can you put him down?" he then asked._

_ She tensed again, her hand around a concealed weapon. Against a regular being of flesh and blood, she would have already drawn, but there was a terrible power washing over her, paralyzing her nerves and making it impossible to move. She knew, deep down, that there was nothing she could do. _

_"My little tails… I'm going to have to let you go." Tails heard her. "I'll see you again soon."_

_He shook his head, afraid, and clung to her. _

_But that little would not deter her. Holding him by the scruff of his neck, she pulled him off, and stepped forward towards the strange kitsune. Looking up, he saw her, standing tall against the dappled light of the canopy above. Looking over her shoulder, she smiled at him._

_"I…"_

_A bright light interrupted her. _

_Her body jerked back and her head lolled over to face the other kitsune. Tails never got a good look at him, but then his mother jerked again, stumbling back, and he saw two holes in her chest. Her mouth opened, but no sound escaped her lips. One last shot silently shook the forest with light and fury. And then Aurora Se' Prower fell to her knees, and then her side. _

_Her child never saw her killer; both kitsune had tears running down their cheeks._

**Nothing else matters.**

_"For the future… I have already torn free my heart. For that cause, I would burn away my soul. My commitment is unquestioned. Unwavering. Absolute. That is how I justify my existence…"_

_An indistinct shape. _

_"Perfect. Flawless. Miles… you're everything I hoped for. You are ready."_

* * *

"You know... you're not what I pictured one of your kind being like," Tempest said, leaning back into the chair. "Though... you may be the exception to the rule. I've noticed there seem to be a lot of them around here."

"Yeah, well I guess I am special in one way or another." Nail admitted. "In fact, I'm not even supposed to here at all."

"Ah yes... the whole cloning thing." The Kitsune warrior nodded, remembering what Nail had said before. "I can't imagine it's all that bad. I don't remember being born anyway... so you hardly missed out on anything exciting."

"Still, I feel…" Nail searched for the word. "Awkward sometimes. But being here as really helped feel like I belong somewhere. Guess that's why Athair sent me here."

"You mentioned him before."

"He communes with the Ancient Walkers, and is in many ways their voice in the mortal world. He was the one that taught how to use my powers, when… when I ended up on my own. He wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but I guess Knuckles' genetics won out and I ended up focused as much on fighting as on spirituality."

"Ancient Walkers, eh?" Tempest 'hmfed.' "I've never even heard of them."

"I'd never heard of your gods either, until just recently."

"It isn't like we advertise."

"The Walkers are worshipped mostly by the Lost Tribe, so even among echidna it isn't very widespread outside of Albion."

Tempest inclined his head and saw light streaming in through the window.

"What time is it?"

"Probably around six?"

Tempest turned his head and looked down at Tails. The boy was still unconscious. He thought about what Nail had said, about Tails using some form of Chaos Control to shatter the stone in his hand. He had suspected that the young fox had incredible potential based on how quickly and readily he understood and used the low level telepathic communication between Kitsune, but now… now it looked like he was on the verge of becoming something incredibly powerful. If he survived the sudden explosion of mental powers that wracked his brain over the night, he would one day be formidable indeed, beyond even his normal Chaos Empowered abilities…

"He'll be waking up soon," Tempest guessed. "If I've trained him right."

Nail seemed a bit strained. "Let's hope so."

Tempest tensed as he saw Tails' eyelids slowly open. This was the moment of truth. If the boy had been overwhelmed by his too-quickly developing mind, his eyes would reveal nothing but the rage and hunger of a savage beast. If that occurred, Tempest knew he would have to put what was left of Miles Na'Turo down, for the good of everyone. And then, if that happened, he would tear Nail's throat out, as promised.

Suddenly, Tails' upper body shot up, and his eyes were completely open.

"Tails?" Tempest asked, using the local moniker he seemed to fond of. He tensed to strike. At this angle, one blow to the throat could…. But the young fox just seemed to look at his two trainers for a moment, confused.

"What?" he asked, plainly.

Tempest smiled, and his body relaxed. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

"It was an emotional connection. Anger." Tails craned his neck and looked at Nail. "Not the response you expected, I'd guess?"

Nail also relaxed, and gave a small laugh. "Don't worry about it kid."

Tails got up, shook his head (annoyed by how long his hair was getting) and took a few seconds to arrange and separate the three bangs that fell over his face. He then silently left, heading off to do his daily exercises.

Tempest let out a sigh of obvious relief.

"Looks like a false alarm. Thank the Lords… and Ancient Walkers, if you believe in them. They gave us enough breathing room for a mistake or two, it seems."

The echidna clone just sighed. "Well, that was a …good experience. I almost turned an innocent boy into a rampaging beast... Maybe I'm not as cut out for this trainer job as I thought I was…"

Tempest considered that. "Perhaps. However… I am starting to believe that there are aspects to this boy that I cannot fathom. An intensity to him that is not wholly kitsune, but something else…I would still offer you the chance to teach him what you would, if you will."

Nail nodded solemnly. "I think I'm just going to meditate on that before I have an answer."

"Very well." Tempest, stood up, stretched slightly, and headed for the door. "The boy can handle doing his exercises alone for a few hours…"

* * *

Outside, Tails felt his own measure of relief at getting away from his two mentors.

"How unexpected..." he mused as he stretched. "I wonder why they were hovering over me like that? Very strange..."

After stretching, he took a quick run back to his hut, and checked his mail. Opening the little mailbox with the key inside his hut, he confirmed just what he'd suspected. There was predictably little of interest. He'd check his workstation soon, to get on top of the day's real events. The thought of it got his blood pumping. By now, his most recent little project had to be just about near ready for deployment.

He returned to the pool, basking for a moment in the lingering energy that suffused the land all around it, courtesy of the Underwater Ring Generator. Then he began with stretches and some mental and physical focusing exercises. They came like second nature to the young Kitsune. His body felt amazing – powerful - full of energy… He felt like a dynamo, crackling with electricity! Burning with power! Tails went through his exercise regimen not just once, but twice.

Walking over to the Ring Pool, Tails dove in, enjoying the cool water. Floating lazily, he let his mind wander. First to work, but then to the things he tried more often than not to suppress. He felt lucid, like he had back at the bar with Sonic and the rest after a few drinks. Maybe that was why, this time, he let his thoughts stray back into uncomfortable territory.

Females…

A surge of blood shot through his heart at the thought of them. Distantly, deep within the reasoning and dispassionate part of his mind, he realized this was the Turan'ha thinking, not him. It wanted him to find a mate. He laughed quietly at the thought, and decided to, at least for a moment, let the 'Rutting' have its way. His mind surged with memories and feelings, mixed with a sort of cold analysis…

Fiona.

The version he was most familiar with had been a robot, of course. Obviously, as a construct, she had been more style than substance, and had quickly rusted in salt water. He had come back for her, years later, and while he still had a deep fondness for the replicant, it was hard to love her the way she loved him, with such absolute and undivided pre-programmed conviction. He had encountered other Fiona Dolls a year ago, on a mission deep into Robotropolis. They were old models, obsolete, but Robotnick or Snively had scrambled them to help in the defense of the manufacturing facility he had been ordered to destroy. He'd reduced them to scrap, even though they looked like the cute girl he'd once come to love. Only the mission mattered. He had learned that fact by then.

Then there was the _real_ Fiona.

He could still feel her pressed against him, smell her sweat and excitement, and even taste her… But, oh, how he hated her. When she had first come to the Freedom Fighters, trying to leave her mercenary ways behind, he had been all to eager to accept her into their ranks. Then she had taken a liking to Sonic (as if enough women didn't flock to him as it was), and moved in when he and Sally had that break up over King Max and the succession crisis. To Tails' vexation, Sonic seemed to be willing to play along with her. Maybe he just wanted to make Sally jealous (which he did succeed in), or maybe, being a careless fun loving sort of idiot, he had just gone with whatever felt like the most fun at the time.

Then, as if those times hadn't been bad enough, with her snubbing any attempt the young fox made to get to know her better, and Sonic doing nothing to help the situation… _then_ she had defected to join Scourge. Trading Sonic for the Anti-Sonic, and the Freedom Fighters for a life of outright villainy and crime, how often had he watched with despair as the girl he had such high hopes for dashed them time and time again? And now, to have her return, stabbing the Kingdom in the back as she did… it was truly unforgivable. And yet…

Tails shook his head.

'I guess I don't like to lose **or** admit I was wrong. Even about her.'

Barby.

Then there had been Barby Koala, from Downunda. She had a certain exotic appeal he was much more comfortable analyzing, now. Exotic was the perfect word to describe her… her voice, her looks, her smell… He had been young, and in a foreign land she was like a warrior princess. Of course, she was his elder by a handful of years, and that kangaroo bastard Walt already had his eyes on her. He couldn't exactly stick around in Downunda (he had responsibilities in the north, ironically enough), and so he'd gone back home. It was no matter, however. As a marsupial, Barby wasn't compatible with him. And… she was dead. Shadow had blown a hole through her pretty little head. He no longer felt the urge to cry at the memory; forever burned into his thoughts as it was, but instead felt a rising anger. A building rage. It felt… good…

Amy.

Amy Rose had followed Sonic around since he'd rescued her back on the Little Planet. That was only a few months after Sonic had found his way to West Island, and rescued a young orphan: a two tailed fox with no home, no parents and no future. They'd had an adventure, and then one day Sonic returned with a pink hedgehog hanging onto his arm. She had been a pain then – always getting in the way, or getting captured, and contributing little to nothing except words of encouragement. Still… she had been his age (before she received the Ring of Acorns and became physically a little older), and she had been so kind and friendly, was it any wonder that he had gotten so accustomed of her? Was it any surprise that he worried about her and cared for her? Was it so yiffing outrageous that he had come to… love her?

He growled.

He reminded himself that he didn't care.

Cream.

Truthfully, it was a bit of a surprise he even thought about Cream. She seemed to like him, and he was comfortable enough around her. She had a strong sense of commitment to the cause, like Barby, and unlike Fiona and Amy, she thought of others before herself. He hadn't hung around her that long, but she'd seemed nice enough, fun to be around, and she was smart enough to realize what she did and didn't know. She was pretty, too, in a kinky sort of way that reminded him of Bunnie. Maybe it was that. Or maybe it was that she was the kind of girl he _should_ have liked, and _should_ have been happy with.

Except he couldn't be.

He refused it.

He wasn't normal, and he never would be. He could never settle down. And he couldn't have someone looking at him like he was a hero. Sonic was a hero.

'I'm…'

_"Nothing else matters."_ The words haunted him.

He couldn't love her, and so he didn't want to be loved. He didn't want a girl chasing after him, or pining for him, or waiting for him, or praying for his safety. What he felt for Cream was an animal attraction… it was lust, and it was the selfish joy of being doted on. That was not what she deserved. It was something no female really deserved. He could never love her; he could never give her children or a family or any of the other wonderful things in life. He would hurt her. That much was certain. He would hurt her like Amy had hurt him. Like Fiona had destroyed him.

"Enough…" He hissed, cutting the thoughts short.

Mental discipline kicked in, and the thoughts vanished. Thankfully, he had enough willpower to cut the offending pattern of thought short. It was foolish to dwell on the females in the area as actual mates. He would just have to maintain his self-control over that aspect of the Turan'ha until he reached the northlands of his Clan. There, perhaps… he could find a mate. A female to share a hearth, to hunt with, and give him an Heir. And that would be it.

What was more important was focusing on the broader picture.

The Grand Scheme.

This power he had been given was his birthright, and he had every intention of using it. The enemies of his survival, as well as the survival of those who had been like his family, were numerous and powerful. Robotnick, Snively and Shadow had been turning what was left of Robotropolis into a Fortress, while collecting Chaos Emeralds for some new and deadly scheme. They had to be stopped. Permanently. Hidden somewhere else in the mountains, Mastermind plotted his own rise to power and had a small army of overlanders and mutated monstrosities at his command. Even on far off Angel Island, the Dark Legion and a potentially resurgent Mammoth Mogul loomed large. They all had to be defeated. That wasn't even counting the damn Rogues recently leap into the fray.

They all had to… die…

Didn't they?

Certainly, he knew that Sally and the rest had never considered murder or assassination an acceptable tactic, except by 'accident.' Even as they aimed to cripple and dispose Robotnick, they had never targeted him directly. So many had died already. What was one more, especially if it would affect the ending of hostilities? He was only flesh and blood; flesh could be easily torn, and blood easily spilt. Why not?

Why not just kill him and all those like him?

Tails stared up, and saw a sky littered – no: **dirty** – with clouds.

"That's the truth, isn't it? It takes a wind… a **great** wind…" he held up his hand and swept it across the heavens. "To clear the sky..."

* * *

**--Notes Chapter 4--**

**Not a tremendous amount** of action in this Chapter, sadly. I thought very seriously about cutting out the Tempest and Nail fight scene, simply because I wanted to trim OCs as much as possible from the Reload of ACO, but in the end I kept it. I did want a little fighting in there, and it was something from the very first drafts of the story. I ultimately changed it a lot, though… to make it less silly. The original read too much like the back and forth "I beat up your character then yours beats mine up" stupidness of multi-author round robins. Even after being cut down in the first draft, it was too annoying. This time, I tried to cut even more of the fat, leaving us with something useful.

So: Nail. Another OC. Like Rush, this one was created by the COA precursor fanfic's co-author. Who (I don't think) ever used the character anywhere else. Nail himself has changed a great deal from that original incarnation. Like Tempest, he exists to "train" Tails and basically stand as an example of what not to be. Except with Nail, Tails dislikes him from the get go. Nail is pacifistic, overly spiritual and superstitious, and often very vague. He stands in for Athair, who I originally wanted to just show up and help in person (except now he exists partly on a higher plane and doesn't bother anymore, thanks comics).

Like before, the OC scenes kind of annoy me, looking back on them, but that's pretty much always the case when I write fanfics that have them. The "Keionah" tale was another carryover from the old original story. I also got to dip into some Blaze and Silver writing, which was nice, as I tried to ease those characters more and more into the story.

I'm pleased with how this chapter came out. It covered the bases I wanted it to.

* * *


	14. Some Touch of Madness i

**"There is no great genius without some touch of madness."  
- Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)**

* * *

Tails stood before Sally, unrepentant.

On her desk rested one of his newest designs. It was obviously fresh out of the Fab, even before the final layer of radar absorbent paint could be added. Watching Sally, pace, reading her reaction as she read his, he wondered who had told her about it. City wide electronic and military security arrangements were his domain. It was possible that Rotor had spilled the proverbial beans while the system was still being set up, but Tails found it more likely that Sally had men spying on his department. The thought of it made his left eyebrow twitch.

"Was there a reason you pulled me away from my work?" he finally asked.

"This, obviously!" she gestured to the device on her desk. It resembled a sphere with three petal-like wings. "This… I don't even know how to describe this!"

"It's a surveillance system," he explained, as if stating the most obvious thing in the world.

"It's a Spy-Eye!" Sally paced up to him, pointing at the machine.

"I take offense at that," Tails replied, holding up his hand and starting to tick off his fingers. "First, my Observation Platforms represent a far more versatile and efficient means of information gathering. The sensor package has been greatly increased without an appreciable increase in weight…"

"You took one of Robotnick's designs, Tails!" Sally yelled. He wondered if her Freedom Fighter Command office was soundproofed. "One of his designs! You… you want to use it on your own people?"

She was mad, he could see.

He closed his eyes. "There is no other efficient means of patrolling the areas outside of our direct oversight. The Ring. The Badlands. The Old Road. The Scar. These regions teem with threats equal to those in both Robotropolis and Megalopolis."

"Tails, you can't…!"

He opened his eyes, then, like chips of blue ice. "**You **don't have to. But **I** do. **You** don't want to. But **I** do. Since we don't have enough men, machines must make due."

She shook her head. "Did my father put you up to this?"

"His Majesty the King told me, and I quote, 'You may do what you feel necessary. I don't wish to know the details.'"

Sally made a choked, angry sound, before turning and resting her hands on her desk. Behind her, Tails tilted his head slightly.

"Let me handle these sorts of things, Aunt Sally," he said, lowering his voice slightly. "Do you remember when the refugees started flocking to Knothole, and no one knew what to do? Do you remember the smell of shit on the streets? The fighting over food? The panic whenever anyone thought they saw a SWATbot or robian they didn't recognize? Do you remember the _fear in the air_?"

Her body shook, ever so slightly, and he could tell that she did.

"It couldn't have been easy for you or the others. Sonic hasn't here. **I** wasn't here. When I came back, and I told you I could **fix** things… that I could build new sewage and water treatment systems, that I could power the city and still keep it hidden… you were skeptical then, too. You've always been skeptical of technology, but it's only a tool."

He stood next to her now, and with both hands he carefully picked up the Observation Platform. It did resemble a Spy-Eye, superficially. That couldn't really be helped. The propulsion system was almost the exact same.

"If you trust me, Aunt Sally, let me use this tool. To find the enemies of Knothole." He turned his head slightly, to look her in the eye. "Imagine the costs of our failure."

"I don't like this," she replied, palms balling into fists against her desk. "I don't think this is right…"

"Sally," he said, and gently put one of his hands on her own. "Who says you even knew about it? Just let me handle messy stuff like this. …Trust me?"

For a few seconds, she waffled.

But…

"I do trust you," she relented. "But please keep them out of the city itself."

He smiled.

"I never intended anything less."

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER FIVE:_

**Some Touch of Madness (Dances in Twilight)**

* * *

The Badlands

The raider base had once been the village of Newton, deep within the fertile breadbasket of the Kingdom of Acorn. It now lay just south of the disputed territories, between human occupied Megalopolis and the mobian occupied southern peninsula. It was a crossroads between those two regions and Knothole and Robotropolis to the west. A vast plain dotted by ruins and broken only occasionally by rolling hills, it was also a hub for bandits and raiders. Some were nomads, riding from suffering village to village, exacting tribute. Others were semi-legitimate and had once been villages themselves before supplanting their lifestyle by less than legal means. Three thousand feet above one particular ex-village, an OP-3 blinked.

Twenty minutes later, there were six of them in the air.

The vehicles were the first sign that something was wrong. In three minutes, all fifteen were a burning wreck, their fuel lines severed and set aflame by pinpoint lasers striking with surgical precision. Moments later, canisters launched from unknown locations began to smoke and hiss, filling the air with fumes… and the raiders' eyes with tears, their exposed membranes burning. A flying transport with ground troops landed soon after, amid the confusion. They burned the crops – illegal narcotics – freed those locals from other villages who had been forced into cultivating them, and proceeded with a wholesale arrest of the entire population. They would be processed en route and eventually delivered into the King's Justice.

Tails, however, had lost interest in them by that point. What the King chose to do with his dissidents and criminals wasn't the fox's business or his concern. What mattered was that he had had a successful test of the Vigilance System. As elusive as the Rogues and the two Others were, and as connected as they were to the underground outside of Knothole jurisdiction, he had had no choice but to up the ante.

It was like a hunt.

'Test Number One… successful,' he concluded. And proceeded to Test Number Two; this time the target was a suspected Robian chop-shop in The Ring. Now, as a rule, Tails had never judged those remains as robians, either due to their not wanting to risk the still imperfect de-roboticization process, or due to having family and friends unwilling to take that risk. The Process was free, provided to any and all by the Freedom Fighters themselves, so it simply came down to choice, which Tails could respect. However, he felt no remorse for those robians who went off on their own, got damaged, and then needed special repairs.

This was because the 'special repairs' robians needed in the field generally came from other robians. It was unsavory, and it made later de-roboticization all but impossible using current technology. Then there was the fact that he considered robians, even in their inorganic forms, to be sentient living beings. There was a _reason_ why organ harvesting was illegal. Chop Shops weren't a high priority target for the Kingdom, but Tails felt it was time and effort well spent.

He watched as the OP-3s vertically enveloped the encampment, assembling remote evidence of the activities within. Most of the grizzly work went on in doors, inside a large tent-like facility, but snap shots of mobians and robians wheeling out 'spare parts' spoke more than a thousand words. Tails watched and waited, until everything was in place.

"Very well," he whispered into the microphone headset he wore. "Execute."

He watched on the banks of screens.

Was this Justice? Tails had no doubt that some would be tempted to call it that. In truth, he was simply cleaning house. The right and wrong of it was irrelevant. There were clouds in the sky. Miles Prower would sweep them all away.

The third test came at last: it was a trial of the passive surveillance routines built into the individual OP-3s. Each one carried a limited synthetic intelligence (no where near true AI level), and when it found something potentially troubling or interesting, it routed the alert and the alert level to the main servers in Knothole. Here, technicians would confirm the alerts. For added redundancy, and to assuage any of Sally's lingering concerns, he also had Nicole patched in remotely.

"Nicole. What is the operational status at present?"

Her preferred holographic representation was that of a green eyed teenage lynx. For her benefit, Tails had taken the liberty of installing a small holographic projector near his new Command Architecture Workstation. For all practical intents and purposes, Nicole would be the real backbone of the Vigilance System. To his surprise, the 'female' AI had accepted the job without apprehension. She appeared then, wearing a violet body hugging dress that shifted with numbers and variables.

"System is operating at 12 of capacity. Forty two drones currently on line. Twelve drones are under fabrication and outfitting. Recharge station is at 99.9 percent. Currently processing eleven violations."

"Eleven?" Tails asked, raising an eyebrow. "Already?"

My, how dirty the sky was; he had a lot of work to see to.

"Do you have any other requests, Tails?" Nicole asked, her lithe holographic form looking up at him.

"Hmm. I would like to be kept notified of any Class-4 disturbances or alerts," he replied, and then glanced away. "About the other day… Nicole. I'm sorry for that."

She shyly stared down at her feet.

"It was a little awkward," she admitted. "But it wasn't the first time someone tried to look at those files."

"The future…" Tails mused, allowing a creeping hint of doubt to enter his voice. "Tied to the past as it is, can we really change anything? For better or for worse? Or are we just trapped in this infinite causality? Moving forward but going no where?"

Nicole processed what he said, and held out her hand in sympathy.

"No one can say for certain whether the future we head towards is the 'best' one. Averting one tragedy may only cause others, worse ones, further along the line," she said, and despite being an AI, he could feel that she felt for him. She had to know what he suspected… about his parents.

"You know, Nicole…" he finally decided. "I'm glad I never saw those files. About my past or my future. I don't want to know what I've done, or will do."

"Miles," Nicole quickly caught herself. "Tails. I know you'll do what you feel is right. That's all anyone can ask of you."

"What I feel is right, huh?" he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "And if I become hated for it? And if I hate myself for it?"

At that, she was silent.

"Listen to me, worrying about things like an old man!" He snorted in unveiled disgust and got up out of his chair. "I'm going to take care of a few other things. You know how to contact me."

Nicole watched him go, a plaintive on her artificial features. Sometimes, she knew exactly how he felt. And she knew exactly how he would feel. But like her, he had his role to play, and there was no way now to recast it.

* * *

The Ring.

Silver the Hedgehog had expected the past to be better than the future. It was proving to be a major disappointment. He'd run into many more mobians over the last week or so than he had in the previous couple years, but they weren't exactly the sort he sought out in the first place. The mobians here were alive, even winning their war, but they were at each other's throats to a degree he'd never expected. He was stating to think that his future, as terrible as it was, had sheltered him from a lot of other evil as well.

Looking outside, he saw fires dotting the road, lighting it up against the darkening sky. Somewhere in the distance, a fire fight broke out, and it was impossible to tell who it was between. As far as he could tell, this close to Robotropolis, there were always Freedom Fighter fighting Eggman robots… and rival gangs fighting each other, and gangs fighting robots, and random people fighting each other. Recently, even the informal cease fire between the gangs and the FF had strained.

The apartment he shared with Blaze was a lot better than what most mobians here had. There was running water, even if he didn't dare to drink it without boiling first, and even plumbing. Some locally generated electricity fed the meager lights that hung, threadbare, overhead. A loud thump-thump came from overhead, shaking one of the lights gangling out of its fixture.

He kept a small radio on in the main room, mostly to ensure that everyone knew someone was present, and didn't try to squat or break in. There were a few underground stations, including one broadcasting propaganda from 'The Resistance and the Government in Exile.' The strongest station, dominating a range of air waves, came from Robotropolis itself. From within the city, voices called for mobians to turn themselves over for roboticization, freeing themselves from 'want and hunger, despair and all the weaknesses of the flesh.' It promised an electronic utopia, claiming that those who joined migrated to a silicon paradise.

It was a strange time.

Silver spun as he heard a distinctive knock at the door. Lifting one finger from across the room, Silver telekinetically undid the trio of locks on the door. Blaze entered, carrying a brown paper bag with a tear in it. He never said as much, but seeing her come back safe and sound always brought a huge feeling of relief to him. Saying as much would have just seemed strange, since she was the leader of their little duo, and tended to looking after him far more than he looked after her. She wore a hood and brown traveling cloak, all local stuff they'd gotten when they first arrived.

Putting the brown bag down on the rough old table in the middle of the room, Blaze reached up to pull back her hood. Her hair, normally styled upwards, was now too long, and ran down past her shoulder blades. The tiny jewel in the middle of her forehead remained unchanged, just as it always had. Walking over, Silver helped take out some of what she'd brought 'home.'

"What's this?" he asked, holding up a tightly wrapped foil package. It felt hot.

"That's for me. They had some fish today," she said, offering him a rare smile. "It'd be a nice change of pace…"

Silver screwed up his face in distaste. "Ugh! Fish! Don't know how you can stomach that stuff."

She held up another box, also warm. "Sweet buns. 'I don't know how you can stomach this stuff.'"

"Blaze!" Silver's eyes lit up with stars. Sweet buns! "You're the greatest ever! Have I told you that before?"

"You have," she replied, handing it over. "But there's nothing wrong with reiterating it."

She also unpacked a few vegetables, and a handful of canned meats and preserves. Some were obviously homemade, coming from nearby farms and villages, while others looked more sophisticated: vacuum sealed in plastic. Two large bottles followed. They had re-used them many times, and tonight, it looked like Blaze had gotten them some sweetened lemonade. Silver wondered how much Blaze had paid for all of it, but then guessed that no matter how much she had paid, he's have ended up spending three times as much. The barter system simply wasn't kind to the time traveling hedgehog.

The last thing Blaze retrieved was a deck of cards. "What was that game from the bar called?"

"Pazaak?" Silver asked, and chuckled. "Yeah. They play it a little different here. Guess they haven't invented Flip or Double cards yet. Want me to teach you?"

Blaze nodded.

"I'd be happy to!" Silver took the deck. It was a bit scuffed up, but it had the requisite ten number cards, and special face cards. He and Blaze ate, in between his explanations of how to play (and how to win), while the radio picked up on some pre-war music. It reminded him of how they'd first met, back in the future.

They'd both been trying to fight Iblis back then, but doing it individually. Blaze came from Cat Country, and he came from burned out the eastern coast of Mobius Minor. He had been fighting the demon as it approached a costal village, and, in trying to finish it off for good, he had ended up overwhelmed and injured. Blaze had intervened, saving his life in the process, and drawing the monster back into the wilderness. The village had been saved, at least for the moment, and it had been the first near victory over Iblis he had ever seen. Of course, nothing changed the fact that Iblis was immortal, and impossible to destroy for good.

Still, they had traveled together, on and off, ever since that day.

"Ace!" Blaze flipped over the card, revealing the ace of spades. "I win, don't I?"

Silver counted the cards laid out before them. Blaze's ace gave her a solid twenty. The laughed, playing another hand; they took turns being dealer, and while Blaze shuffled, Silver finished his dinner. In an hour, the two were finishing up. Blaze had proven to be a quick study, though he knew her serious but shy persona meant she'd probably never play the game with anyone besides him.

"Hey, Blaze…" he said, shuffling the deck for a fresh round. "Did you ever, kind of… have second thoughts about all this?"

"We've been down this road before, Silver," she replied, sipping at the bottled juice she'd bargained for at the market earlier. "Mephiles knows what he's doing. We just have to have a little faith in him."

"I guess," Silver conceded. "But all these criminals…"

"It isn't like we can ask anyone else for help here. Especially since The Trigger is some kind of worldwide hero…" She shook her head in open disbelief. "And the Trigger's enemies are even worse! There're no other options."

She made sense. The same kind of sense Mephiles made.

"It'll be worth it when we stop Iblis," he decided, hoping he sounded more convinced than he actually was.

Blaze smiled: a quiet confident grin. "Exactly."

That night, while Blaze slept in what passed for the bedroom, Silver rolled off the couch and stared out the window. The sky was clear and dark, and despite the light pollution from Robotropolis, he could see the stars bright as pinpricks against a black and infinite sheet. For a while, he just watched, soaking it all in.

Then he heard a scream.

Turning his attention back to the street, he saw a mobian, a black feline, being forced into a car. Two males, he couldn't make them out in the dark, seemed to have her by the shoulders. Silver frowned; she was probably a prostitute. He'd heard of such things, but never really seen them until his lovely little trip into the past. He hardly noticed his eyes narrowing as he watched them force her into the car and start to drive off.

'It isn't my business…' he reasoned, even as he rolled up the window. 'This all happened in the past, anyway. I shouldn't interfere.'

Drifting down to the street corner, he started to run.

'Yeah right, I shouldn't interfere!'

* * *

Cream rushed to prep her gear.

She had sent him a personal request to play a role in the 'ongoing security crisis' and his response had come hours later, in the form of a curt communiqué. He had said, in only a few more words, that he needed soldiers 'he could trust' to help run certain operations, and that he could use someone as backup on an 'interesting bit of news that just came up.' Gathering her standard Freedom Fighter kit, Cream headed over to their meeting point, zipping up her combat vest even as she flew out the door.

As per his orders, she told no one. Cream found him waiting for her near the old city hangar, where many of his vehicles were kept in storage. He seemed to be twirling a power ring around his index finger, but quickly tucked it away when she showed up. Unlike all the other times she had seen him he wore a full length jacket over his body, light brown in color.

"MAC-2?" he asked, seeing her weapon. Unlike before, she'd quickly fastened on the underslung grenade launcher, too. "Looks like you're expecting trouble."

A small smirk came and went on his features. The Mobian Assault Carbine mark II was _his_ weapon. He had brought the original versions to the Freedom Fighters from Station Square, where he had paid for much of their construction and procurement out of his own pocket. The rest had come as part of the de facto alliance between the Kingdom and that human government neared completion. It was a shortened version of the MAF's now standard-issue assault rifle, fitting the need of the Freedom Fighters for a lightweight, compact carbine with rifle level firepower. The barrel was shortened, and the solid stock was replaced by a folding metal one. Cream kept the screw-on silencer in one of her pockets.

"Should I be expecting trouble?" she asked, unperturbed. In fact, it was starting to sound exciting.

Then, he did smirk. "Almost definitely…"

They took one of the armored motorcycles from before, but this time she sat with him like she had originally hoped. Holding onto him as they sped across the landscape, Cream allowed herself a moment's relaxation. He wasn't exactly like she'd expected him to be – Tails that was – but he was close. As much as she respected Sonic for all he'd done, she'd always known that Tails had been what really turned the war around for most of the normal, non-chaos-powered mobians. He had brought them weapons and tactics and _hope_, even **if** they were rented from the humans that most mobians held hatred and contempt for. Mobian society had been developing an acute anti-technology bias that he had pushed back against. And once exposed to it, few had wanted to give it up, even as they resented the very mobian who crammed it down their throats.

For a long time, she had had dreams about him. They had started rather abruptly, years ago, before she had even been certified for training, much less combat. It was hard to tell why. She hadn't even seen him by that point, and Bunnie didn't write home that much either. When she had heard of him, and even seen him a few times in passing, back when she was a raw recruit, it had reinforced her drive to excel. Cream wouldn't go so far as to say she was a Freedom Fighter because of him, but she was alive because of what he had done: kick some sense into the movement.

And even if no one else thought so, she thought he was cute, to boot!

The Ring, again. She recognized the route; it took them past the Breeding Grounds nightclub, and deeper into the old suburbs. They soon left the sound of music behind them as Tails turned the vehicle slightly, heading towards a mostly intact chateau. Hedgerows rose up on all sides as they grew closer. A grand old fountain gradually emerged, long since dried up but nonetheless imposing in stature. Statues stood in relief, great figures with hands outstretched towards the heavens, children at their feet with laurels and flowers.

Tails parked behind the fountain, and they slid off.

"What now?" she asked, looking over the creepy looking villa. The windows were boarded up, but a faint light from inside shone through the cracks in the massive front door. Dark, dying trees, all branches and no leaves, flanked the sides. She looked around, to the left and right, but found no other obvious lights.

"Back off about a hundred meters and wait for me," he said, heading towards the entrance.

"That's it?" she called after him. "But what about…?"

"If I need you..." He paused, and turned slightly so she could see his face. "You'll notice."

She didn't argue. "Yes, sir."

"Don't worry so much," he added, and went up to the doors. They creaked and groaned as he opened them, and then he stepped inside and out of sight.

Inside the chateau loomed a curved double staircase leading up to a second floor. Tails passed under it, heading for the light. His ears twitched at the sound of voices, and weight shifting on wood. He counted off in his head, and then opened another set of smaller doors. Here, at last, he came face to face with the source of the light: the room inside had modular light posts set up in the four corners, bathing it in an ample glow. Drapes covered the walls, hastily adorned with paintings. The floor was recently swept, and Tails' red, white and black boots made a distinct tap-tap sound as the steel soles, built for grinding, hit the colored tile. The mosaic underfoot was of the Source of All granting power to the First King, Alexander the Golden.

In the center of the room, legs crossed and reclining on a perfectly clean couch, sat a single male lynx. He wore a plain white shirt and tie, and black pants. An empty holster and chest strap led Tails' eyes to the firearm resting on the table in front of him. Tails recognized it instantly: a GAST M30S. It was a locked breech, delayed recoil operated, double action semi-automatic handgun in use by the Royal Secret Service and only issued in extremely limited numbers. The 'S' designation stood for 'Special,' indicating a specific variant made just for the RSS. The gun was light weight, capable of very swift reloading, and produced relatively low sound with an attached suppressor. This one also seemed to have an extended clip loaded.

The presence of the weapon sent a simple message: 'We have people in the Royal Secret Service. We can get weapons only they should have. We're not to be screwed around with.'

"Let's talk business," the lynx said, indicating the couch opposite his, with two ottomans for reclining one's feet on. Sliding one of the ottomans off to the side, Tails sat down on it, hands on his knees.

"I'm listening."

"How long have you been a… Freedom Fighter?" The lynx asked, obviously not meaning for the question to be answered. "Eight years? Is that about right? …I bet it is."

"Something like that," Tails conceded.

"I can respect that. You've done some good work. In fact…" he offered the fox a sympathetic smile. "We're more alike than you probably think. And I owe you a lot, given the business I'm in. That we're in."

"The business **we're** in?"

"That's right," the lynx said, nodding congenially. "The business **we're** in. Except you operate on a whole other level than I do. I can arm gangs and individuals, even villages. I have a special discount for villages! But you. You! You arm entire movements. How many tons of weapons flow through your hands, and I bet you hardly give them a second thought!"

"I give them more thought than you think," Tails replied, coolly.

"I suppose that may be so," the lynx agreed. "I look up to you, in a way. I would have never even dared to approach the humans to negotiate an arms deal. But you have that genius intellect of yours. I remember being in Knothole, once. You did this charity thing – you played chess against twenty other mobians, at the same time. That was amazing, I thought. I could never do that!"

"You opened up new horizons!" the lynx continued, gesturing with his right hand. "And where the Freedom Fighters went, fighting those Eggman monstrosities, people like myself followed. The mobians you protected want to protect themselves, after all. And they want all the things this war has taken from them, besides simple security. The concept of luxury… is universal."

"Very entrepreneurial," Tails replied.

"I _like_ the Freedom Fighters, I _really_ do," the lynx admitted, resting his hands on his crossed legs. "I want you to know that. Don't think there aren't a lot of people in my organization – and others! – that appreciate what you've all done for us."

He held up a hand, and one finger. "But…!"

"We simply can't sit by while you move against us, either. We've fought, too. Fought hard, to carve out a life out here. We didn't all have hidden facilities in the Great Forest to run back to. We didn't have magical chaos powers." The lynx closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "With our teeth and our claws, we survived and made lives for ourselves. We have lifestyles of our own, and families to support. So…"

"How am I to take it when you do something like this?" he asked, sounding more hurt than anything else. "Your movement has felt free to use us in the past. I thought we had an _understanding_, Knothole and The Ring. You fight the good fight, even in our backyard if you have to, but you leave us alone to conduct business as we see fit. Now this! Raids? A Fixer facility? A… pharmaceutical enterprise? Why? Why would you do this?"

Tails didn't respond at first. He seemed to be digesting the lynx's words. He even nodded slightly, finding himself agreeing, and even sympathetic, to some of what he had heard. Across from the fox, the lynx sensed that Tails was thinking it over.

"We don't have to be enemies," he added, and with no small amount of flair, he retrieved a small, clear bottle. "This is overland brandy. Right now, this is one of the more expensive drinks on the planet, outside of human territory. Share it with me, and we'll work out a deal we can both live with."

"What could you offer me?" Tails asked, finally speaking up.

"Anything you want. Money. Women. Artifacts! …Information."

"On your clients?"

"Now, now," the lynx waggled his finger. "I wouldn't be in business if I played kiss and tell."

"Of course not."

"I'm prepared to give you a cut. We are." The lynx smiled; the smile of a salesman. "5, off the top. **Of everything**. We have men working in Internal Finance. We can route it all to an account in Echidnapolis. No one will ever know, and when the war is over, you'll be one of the richest mobians on the planet. You can even raid one or two places, once in a while… to keep up appearances."

Tails nodded in apparent acquiescence. "That's all very generous. If you were me, you'd probably accept."

"I would, if I were you."

"And I would accept… if I were you." Tails pointed at the lynx. "But I'm not you. I don't negotiate **or** compromise my principles. And I don't negotiate… when I can win, instead."

The lynx's cordial demeanor shifted instantly into a deep scowl. "Win? You think you can **win**? You've just signed your own death warrant." He spoke into one of the buttons on his shirt. "It looks like the deal has fallen through. Captain Anderson?"

"Ohhhh…" Tails stood up, craning his neck back and forth. "I was wondering what his name was."

The first of them stormed in from behind. Tails slid his foot in front of the ottoman he had just been sitting on, and kicked it back behind him, hitting the mercenary as he entered the room. The soldier of fortune fell back into one of his comrades, submachine gun firing wildly. Tails then took that same foot, brought it up and around, and slammed it into the table between himself and the underworld negotiator. The other end of the table immediately came up, hitting the lynx on the wrist as he reached for his weapon, and throwing the GAST M30S into the air.

Tails caught it with his right hand and immediately took a step to the side, pivoting as he took aim at another mercenary crashing in through a false part of the drape-covered wall. The bullet tore into his hand, followed by another that blew out his knee, sending him sprawling and screaming in pain. Tails then turned, again, and aimed upwards at the ceiling. The sound of heavy boots could be heard, and he fired upwards, two times, and then two more. Two heavy weights hit the floor, but no more footfalls.

Tails' tails spun, covering his sides almost from head to toe. Bullets hit them, only to ricochet. Shifting his stance and using his tails as shields, Tails advanced on two mercenaries who had broken in through another wall. The GAST barked, over and over, and the men fell to the ground, clutching their legs and arms. He then turned around, completely, and fired in the other direction, silencing another weapon firing from behind the cover of the wall.

More noise came from the original entrance to the room; Tails turned to face it, his namesake's shifting to block and cover his front. Behind him, the lynx scrambled to get away. Tails spared two shots and blew out his right knee. Then the last two mercenaries busted in through the main doors, having finally either tossed aside or stepped over their two wounded comrades. The first down, like so many others, to a trio of bullets aimed at his legs. He slumped and the mobian behind him pushed, using him partly as a shield. Tails rushed in, taking one last shot, before facing the onrush of automatic fire.

Lowering his smoking tails, he grabbed the mercenary's gun with his left hand, around the slide, and twisted, breaking the soldier's finger. Tails then slammed his palm into the large mobian's chest, sending his back crashing into the wall. Grabbing the mercenary's vest, the kitsune fox followed up with a throw that send him clean across the room, crashing into and knocking over the couch the negotiator had once been sitting on. Ejecting the GAST's now empty extended clip, Tails held it in two hands and took it apart with a simple motion. Letting the pieces fall to the ground at his feet, he rolled his shoulders.

"So," he asked, looking around the room at the wounded and beaten mobians. "Which one of you is Captain Anderson?"

Clutching his leg, the lynx laughed.

"… Ah!" Tails slowly turned around again.

He should have smelt them coming.

"I see."

But he had gotten sloppy, and forgotten.

The body of one of the mercenaries by the front door flew through the room, followed by another. Taking their place was a creature, not flesh and blood, but metal and conductive fluid. It took on the shape of a mobian, but with sharp angles and solid surfaces. No crude construct, it was composed of so called _biosteel_ – the unusual metal resulting from the roboticization process.

"Robians," Tails said the word, but without contempt. He reached into his jacket for the first time. "Well, you chose to be here, didn't you?"

Normal bullets would still have been somewhat effective against a robian, even a war-mod robian like one could encounter deeper in Robotropolis territory. But up-armored as these were, one had to rely on more specialized equipment to make a quick fight of things. The weapon Tails retrieved from his person was carbine length, but with an unusual bullpup configuration; with a horizontally mounted, vertically loaded box magazine. This gave it a stocky, stubby, box-like appearance. There seemed to be no other attachments, be it a scope or flash suppressor. The phrase _"I'd Love 2"_ was written on the side in black.

Holding the weapon up to his shoulder, Tails braced himself, took aim and fired.

Captain Anderson had time to get off a single shot from his arm mounted cannon. Then an expanding crater in the middle of the robian's chest appeared, the force of the impact kicking the synthetic lifeform like a mule. Its feet actually left the ground. Tails fired again, blowing another crater in its torso, just a few inches from the original point of impact. A third round punched clean through and tossed the robian onto its back.

"Oh…?" Tails took a step back, and rubbed his shoulder with his left hand. It came back bloody. He'd been nicked, and the recoil from using the rifle had further opened the wound. Not that it mattered.

"You know," he said aloud. That robian had been pretty tough, himself. "Maybe I should have kept the AP ammo loaded instead?"

Tails pivoted, and saw the lynx negotiator squeezing through the back door, heading towards the dried up pool behind the house. Lowering his weapon, he walked around the fallen couch, and towards the door. Casually opening it, he followed the wounded mobian outside.

"You brought this on yourself, you know," Tails said, taking his time. The lynx continued to crawl towards the empty pool. Once, the villa would have had a beautiful back yard, stretching into gardens. Now it was just an overgrown maze. He assumed that was where his quarry was headed.

"Why not come along quietly?" Tails asked, just about caught up now. "I know you've dealt with the Rogues and their cohorts. You're going to tell me everything I want to know about…"

That was when the flood lights turned on.

"Hello there," came a familiar voice, far behind the blinding light. Tails partly covered his eyes, as they began to adjust. He counted: one, two, three. _Three battle mechs_. There also appeared to be at least thirty SWATbots in attendance. Sitting in the pilot seat of the centermost mech, Snively seemed to be rather enjoying himself.

Tails licked his lower lip.

"Snively." He didn't try and spin a colorful nickname. That was more Sonic's shtick. "It's been a while. How you holding up?"

"Oh, you know," the lead mech said, tilting its anthropomorphic and stylized head. "The usual."

"No rest for the wicked, huh?"

"Afraid not."

"I didn't expect you'd get an invite to this little house party," Tails continued, glancing at the wounded lynx. He seemed a little shocked by the recent arrivals himself.

"I was **supposed** to wait for some kind of signal," Snively explained. "But you know me. I'm impatient. And I **was** going to kill all you furry freaks anyway."

"Making a deal with you…"

"I know," Snively drolly replied. "Not too smart, are they?"

Tails' namesakes started to save back and forth, like snakes eager to strike. Normally, the situation would have left him at least a little panicked. Things that didn't go as planned usually had that effect on him. But this time… this time, he felt his blood boiling with excitement. One could say that the little scuffle before had gotten his engine going, so to speak. He leveled his Carbine Custom 'Love' Type 2 at the lead mech.

"Let's have some fun."

The man in ten meter tall battle armor chuckled.

"Yes. Let's!"


	15. Some Touch of Madness ii

"You can't do this! I got friends!"

Silver pursed his lips and tilted his head slightly. The mobian currently held in his telekinetic vice made a good point. Then again, the fact that his entire gang of friends, eighteen in all, were scattered around their estate headquarters in various states of incapacitation… it didn't exactly bolster his argument that much. Silver's fingers twitched, and the sole remaining mobian raccoon suspended in midair struggled to move.

"I really couldn't care less who your friends are," the hedgehog finally decided. Turning his hand, so it was palm up, he lifted his fingers. The raccoon slammed into the ceiling and stuck there.

Pimping and whoring was one thing…

But gang bangers really did cross the line. Silver took a few steps forward, snapping wood underfoot as he trampled one of the gang's fallen masterpieces. Like so many others, they had fondly branded every available surface with their trademark symbols, and if anything, this gang had to be the worst of the lot. The so called "Bad Artists," they seemed to be emulating some sort of new age impressionist phase. Splotches of paint covered the walls, the floors, and every other surface; broken only by scribbled signatures.

They had been getting a little party together to celebrate a new work of art. Silver added a few dirty footprints to it as he walked over to check out the far end of the room. He could just see the edge of a dirty mattress, dumped on the floor. The two young females he had caught sight of earlier – being forced into the building – one the feline and the other lapine, were huddled together. They looked shaken but unhurt.

"Hey!" he barked at them. "Get out of here! Don't just sit there staring at me!"

One of them looked ready to bolt, but the other cringed.

"What? I'm here to rescue…oh! This," he finally realized, and turned off his telekinesis. The eerie glow that had run up his arm and engulfed his hand faded. "See? Nothing to scared of!"

"Dat's what you think asshole!"

Silver sighed, glancing over his shoulder at the gang boss from before. "You're still conscious?"

On the floor, the raccoon struggled to get back up on hands and knees. Outside, Silver could hear the roar of engines. "You little prick…! I told you I got friends!"

That seemed to shock the two girls into moving, at least. The feline bolted first, dragging the rabbit girl off with her. Silver rolled his eyes. There was no point in biding a discrete exit, given the ruckus he'd already caused. So he put his hands on his hips and waited.

"OOOOOOOOO WEEE!" a high pitched voice jeered, just as the doors to the central room slammed open. Silver cocked an eyebrow at the mobian's appearance. A mink, male, he wore tie dyed bell bottom pants, hot red, and an open vest in the same blazing color. What could only be some sort of golden chain ran down his chest. Assorted piercings covered his ears, lower lip, his navel, and yes: even his tongue, which he promptly stuck out and put on display.

The mink snapped his fingers, and another mobian of the same breed, but in only slightly less ostentatious dress, emerged carrying that could only be a boom box. Kneeling down in front of the first mink, he held out the oversized stereo system.

"I'm too sexy for my love,  
Too sexy for my love,  
Love's going to leave me.  
I'm too sexy for my shirt,  
Too sexy for my shirt,  
So sexy it hurts…"

Silver's expression fell. "Oh come on!"

The mink laughed starkly. He then struck a pose, and pointed at the hedgehog. "I can totally dig the hair, man. Very futuristic. And those treads? Totally rad! Voice is a little funny, _but_…" The mink's luxurious locks trailed through the air as he shook his head. "The world's most sensual, _super sexy_ Dance Master, Rory K. Rokk, acknowledges you as a well dressed enemy worth fighting!"

"I'm a model you know what I mean,  
And I do my little turn on the catwalk,  
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah,  
I do my little turn on the catwalk…"

"Are you serious?" Silver gave a sad sigh, and blinked. By the time he opened his eyes, a strangled cry filled his ears, almost drowning out the music. Eyes wandering to his left, he saw the raccoon boss of the Bad Artists lying on a pool of blood. The time traveler then turned back to the new arrival, who had drawn a different sort of handgun, and who now seemed to be happily twirling it around his fingers.

That had… actually pretty damn fast.

"And I'm too sexy for my hat,  
Too sexy for my hat,  
What do you think about that?"

Rory K. Rokk snickered, as his 'well dressed' men stormed the building. The mink stopped twirling his gun, and leveled it at Silver.

"This here territory is now part of our _dance floor_!" he gleefully declared. "And we'll put a light show on for anyone crashing the party uninvited!"

"NOW!" he suddenly yowled. "Let's get this party _started_!!"

Silver didn't wait for him to finish. Holding out both hands, he telekinetically uprooted a nearby television, and the Bad Artist's own radio. Propelling the two towards R.K. Rokk, he immediately started to move, as the other Dance Freaks tried to get a bead on him. The TV hit head on, plowing into the boom box operator and sending him flying. R.K. Rokk, however, made a graceful pivot and flourish, avoiding the radio by inches.

A great grin spread across his face. "Light him up, Freaks!!"

He gave the laser pistol in his hand one last quick spin, before opening fire. Invisible pulses of light, identifiable only by the occasional tracer round, scorched the ground as Silver ran, uprooting and tossing every fixture he could find. Spinning to his left, Silver clutched his hands, enveloping one of the gangsters in an artist's tarp, before throwing him out a window. Spinning to his right, he gestured upwards, and a fallen wooden column rose to block several laser rounds that scored and burned the surface. Sending the column spinning, rolling even, with a flick of his finger, Silver then sent it flying into two more of the Dance Freaks trying to get around and encircle him.

"You want to hear my music?" Silver yelled, feeling a laser nick his arm, leaving a dark burn. "Listen to THIS!"

Straining, he raised his arms, fingers curled. All around him, wooden planks and panels tore up, while nails popped out of their resting places, filling the air with shrapnel. Crossing his arms, the hailstorm intensified - the air crackling with chaos energy. Finally extending one hand; the wave of debris crashed into two well armed gangsters shooting from behind cover. Even out of sight, they became engulfed in the churning nail-filled winds. Silver pulled his arm back, and directed it towards their boss. R.K. Rokk smirked, and pirouetted, snatching up the unconscious boom box operator to use as a shield.

Silver saw him taking aim, and without thinking, tried to erect a telekinetic barrier. Too late, he remembered that while effective against bullets or even some particle weapons, it would be useless against a beam of coherent light. He cringed as the Rokk got in a clean hit, burning his arm and shoulder. Silver's telekinetic control weakened, and the barrage he had pulled together fell to the ground. He still wasn't used to fighting so many opponents at the same time, while not using his powers to lethal effect…

Thinking quickly, he tore up a dozen planks of wood and hastily threw them in a wave at the remaining Dance Freaks. Another of them screamed, a heavily piece of wood still plastered to his face. Another yelped and ducked for cover.

"WOOO!" R.K. Rokk tossed aside his mobian shield, cheerfully twirling his laser pistol. "I put on a good light show, but you…! You really know how to bring down the house!"

He fired again, just as Silver pulled together several planks to form a makeshift wall. Except the beam was powerful enough to punch through. The invisible laser missed anything vital, but still singed Silver's right hand. He flinched and the wall fell apart.

"Time to end our little dance…" the Rokk leveled his weapon at the hedgehog. He wouldn't miss again. "You were sexy while you lasted, baby!"

Silver raised his hand, and seized the mink's body in a telekinetic vice.

"What…?" The Rokk's finger twitched, but couldn't move enough to pull the trigger. "What is this?"

"I got im, boss!" the gangster from before popped out, aiming his laser pistol with both hands. Silver's eyes widened as he tried to move his left arm, but it was numb and not responding. Moving his right hand, he tried to toss the Rokk at his underling, but knew it would probably be a second too late…

At which time the entire face of the building exploded.

Brick and mortar, wood and steel, filled the air as something crashed through the face of the estate house. Jumping for cover, and releasing his hold on the incomparable R.K. Rokk, Silver squinted his eyes through the dust. At first the cause of the interruption was impossible to discern, and then it started to move. A massive mechanical hand slammed into the ruined floor, helping to push the bulk of the body back upright. Red and black in color, it moved with a hiss of hydraulics and the creak of synthetic muscle fibers straining beneath armor plate.

Something moved on what had to be the main body, and explosions – no plumes of smoke but not explosions – erupted out of exposed chambers. Rockets, or maybe mini-missiles, flurried out and into the air. The deafening roar of explosions (this time there could be no doubt) and the sound of what could only be a metal spike hitting a steel wall at supersonic velocity, filled the room. Silver pushed aside a wooden beam that had fallen nearby, watching as the metal construct got back on its feet and dug itself out of the ruins of the house.

"WHO HA!" a familiar cry pierced the air. R.K. Rokk stood, one foot on his knocked out henchman, and one arm wrapped around his precious boom box, now perched on his left shoulder. "Now this is what I call a light show! Get up and DANCE, boys!!"

The plainly unhinged Dance Freak started firing madly, and with a collective groan of protest, the rest of his cadre tried to get up and join in. By this time, even some of the Bad Artists Silver had knocked out before, most of whom having wavered between fleeing and hiding, were getting back up and firing into the darkness. Green pulses of light came back in reply, tearing apart wood and brick.

Silver caught sight of a gangly form; an armored robotic torso, dull gray in color; with two spindly arms each ending in a large barreled cannon of some sort. A helmeted head of some sort, flat and circular, but with a luminous strip like a flattened cyclopean eye, turned to the left and then the right. Bullets hit its frame, but being merely handgun caliber, they bounced clean off. The lasers scored slightly more keenly, scarring the metal armor, and even knocking out one of the weapon arms.

'Eggman robots!' Silver thought to himself, and without thinking, he seized the robot and gave it a telekinetic push back and into one of its comrades. The things weren't really alive, so the time traveling hedgehog felt little need to hold back. The robots responded in kind, firing on anyone and anything that caught their fancy. Further away, the giant robot kept turning and firing at some other object of interest, this time with an arm mounted minigun.

It was a complete melee.

Scrambling out of the teetering remains of the building, still clutching his arm, Silver came face to face with another of the metal monstrosities. Pulling back his arm, he gave it a push, hoping to send it sprawling. But retractable claws in the robot's chicken-walker feet kept it from toppling over. Pushing again, Silver felt his mental focus begin to slip – the burns on his arm and shoulder were making it hard to concentrate. Finally, with a mental heave, he sent the automaton flying through a window, at the same time blowing a hole in the wall.

Carefully extraditing himself, avoiding the jagged wood that threatened to cut him further, Silver saw a bright light headed his way. All around him, he could hear fighting, as a general free for all engulfed the street. The bright light resolved into a pair of headlights, and an armored two wheel vehicle. The driver, a young looking female lapine, took off her helmet.

And held out her hand. "Sir! It isn't safe here!"

* * *

"Stand still, you little…!"

Tails flipped in midair, tails spinning and lifting him higher into the air. Ejecting the spent cartridge in his Love-II custom carbine, he changed the box magazine in midair, locking it into place. Then it returned to his shoulder, and his finger clenched on the trigger. The kick from the HVLP-AP (high velocity liquid propellant – armor piercing) ammo was incredible. Any normal mobian would have dislocated their shoulder firing it on anything but single shot mode. Tails fired in controlled three round bursts, as the digital readout on the top of the weapon counted down from forty.

Erupting from the white hot barrel with every shot fired was a single 6.9 millimeter ultra-high velocity bullet, accelerating past Mach 3 up to 4000 feet per second. On impact, the copper casing of the shell broke away, revealing a tungsten-carbide penetrator with a red mercury ignition tip. Three of these hit within one and a half inches of the same point, in this case, the sensor array mounted on the 'face' of one of the armored assault mechs.

The forty foot tall machine stumbled back from the combined impact force and damage, weapons firing blindly. Both shoulders 'opened,' with the armor plate folding back, launching explosive ordinance into the air. Exploding through the flak bursts, an orange blur hit one of the mech's hands, drilling through servos and steel before cutting through to the other side. The spinning sphere then resolved into an orange blur as Tails ran down the length of the extended arm, firing round after armor piercing round into the robot's upper torso and anthropomorphized face. Conical craters sprouted wherever it was hit, and then Tails leapt over the shoulder and latched into the head with his left hand. Spinning around, to the right, to the front, to the left, and back behind, his tails struck like a golden blur.

Jumping off the battle robot's back and flying through the air, Tails turned and watched as the massive machine lilted over to the side. After only a second, the head rolled back, held in place only by a few remaining uncut sparking cables. Fires lit up on the inside as it fell to its knees. Two more rockets shot out of its left chest before the head completely detached. The torso finally groaned and fell forward, burning and sparking.

Tails landed, too, catching his breath.

He didn't have spines like Sonic, but his tails could slice through damn near anything. And when they weren't handy, as they were in close quarters… Two Type-36 SWATbots raised their arms to fire on him, but he picked them off with snap shots to the torso. Unlike with the robian, which he had shot at with normal ball ammo, the SWATbots were each cored by a single armor defeating tungsten-carbide round. Propping himself up, and then getting back on his feet, he started to run as more shots rained down on his position.

Another Type-36 reared its cylon-like visage, both arms cannons blazing. Tails blocked with his tails, simply by reflex, and planted an AP round into its center of mass. The automaton flew back, landed on its feet, and then took another round that sent it tumbling, legs kicking wildly at the air. Tails wasn't terribly concerned by the SWATbots, even though they were the newest model.

Compared to the obsolete Type-30 SWATbots he remembered from his younger days, these new ones were vastly more deadly, but they were still vulnerable to impacts and projectile weaponry; their weapons systems relatively weak. Two years ago, the Eggman had attempted to upgrade roughly one in four Type-30s into Type-34s, to keep the design competitive. A SWATbot Final production version, the Type-36, was then built to wring the last bits of usefulness from the initial specs, and make some use out of the remaining production lines, but they were relatively few in number and rarely encountered in large numbers.

Snively had obviously been hoarding a few.

Taking a step and sliding into a spin, Tails slid across the ground past two more of the robots. He'd learned their blind spots through experience, and knew their peripheral vision was sub par. His tails relaxed, and behind him, the two Type-36s fell into four pieces, cut in half at the waist. His biggest concerns loomed nearby, just now cresting the hill far behind. The first was an E-class Armored EggFrame. Why Robotnick had this obsession with naming everything an egg-this or an egg-that, Tails didn't know (now weather phenomenon – that was a much cooler theme), but he was familiar with the two models now after him.

The E-class was a long range arty platform. Mounted on its right shoulder and integrated into its arm was a massive shotgun-style linear mass accelerator. A rail gun, in other words. Tails knew a single shot from it would punch clean through most anything, including himself. Not that he intended to give it the chance to ground itself and brace for a shot. The E-class also possessed a rather dangerous beam projector, and the usual assortment of short range mini-missiles.

He'd just taken care of the medium range D-class mech, with its mix of cluster missile and rapid fire ordinance. That left Snively in his G-class AEF. It was a close range model, designed to fight Sonic on even footing. The shield was the most annoying part; it was Morganite, making it effectively immune to chaos powered attacks, up to and including the spin dash. It would take something special to deal with _that_ defense.

"Tails!"

He held out his hand, and caught Cream's as she raced by. Flipping over the driver's seat, he barely found room to stand behind the passenger's compartment. An albino – or was he just pale colored, like Cream – hedgehog seemed to be holding onto her and occupying the second seat. Tails examined him for all of a half second before noting that he had a laser burn on his arm. Then he refocused on the task at hand.

"There!" he pointed at the E-class battle mech. "Make a pass and then get out of here!"

"Right!" he heard.

"Prower! Code 16!" he yelled, triggering the voice activated weapons controls. "Alpha. Six. Alpha."

Cream handled the armored motorcycle well enough; she kept going, even when the armored shell to the sides of the cycle split. Two weapons popped up out of storage. Tails used his tails to catch and direct them into his hands. Still riding on the trailing end of the motorcycle, he took aim as the blasted across the open ground and near the left side of the towering artillery mech. Flipping one weapon over his shoulder by its strap, Tails hoisted the other tube shaped device.

The mech took a step back, opening fire with its torso-mounted mini missiles. Metallic fragments bounced off the armored plate of the combat motorcycle; even the clear windshield barely cracked under the force of the proximity explosions. Blasting through the conflagration, they swept just under the left side of the mech, and it was then that Tails fired. A streak of fire and ash, the tail of an anti-tank missile, climbed up and away, detonating in the junction between the E-class mech's shoulder arm and shoulder mounted rail gun.

Tails tossed aside the now spent launcher, and jumped off the motorcycle. Rolling as he hit the ground, he broke into a run. To his surprise, he found he wasn't alone. Keeping pace was the white hedgehog. That alone shouldn't have been possible. Unless…

'A chaos adept?' Tails wondered.

"Go!" the hedgehog yelled, holding out his good arm. "Now!"

His full attention back on the mech, Tails could see that some force – the newcomer no doubt – had lifted the armored frame's damaged arm, partly ruining its balance. Jumping into a spin dash, Tails plowed into and through an exposed section of the robot's body, up and across what would be called the arm-pit of an organic humanoid. Armored panels tore free, and the arm itself pin wheeled through the air. Running across the chest, Tails jumped again and turned, propelling himself away from the robot even as he opened fire.

Armor piercing rounds tore into the now de-armored chest, setting off secondary explosions. Another flurry of mini-missiles fired off in every direction, filling the air with fire and mach-speed ball bearings. The crippled mecha took another step, and Silver pulled back his arm, twisting the joint just as it put pressure on its knee. The leg twisted and split from the pressure, sending it falling to the left. Tails, still shielding himself from the explosions, then saw more flashes of light as the armored motorcycle swung around and hit the robot from behind.

Any annoyance he felt at Cream not getting out of the area like he had ordered disappeared as she found the bike's main armament and opened fire. The internal 20mm cannon coughed explosive rounds, savaging the E-class mech's back, and blowing off its head. Ammunition stores within its body finally started to cook off, and seconds later, the whole upper body exploded. The remaining two legs twitched, before one fell to the left and the other forward, into the dirt.

Tails landed, breathing heavily.

"Not yet!" he spun, and brought up another disposable rocket launcher. The looming figure of the last armored frame cast a shadow he could see, even facing the wrong direction. The rocket motor spat flame, and the missile flew true – only to impact uselessly against the red and black shield held by Snively's mech. Around its feet, more robots swarmed: a mix of SWATbots like before, and a growing army of nearby badnicks, summoned to his aid.

Without warning, one of the destroyed E-class's legs flew through the air, crashing headlong into the robot ranks. Tails took the opportunity presented by the confusion to open fire with his Love-II carbine, spent shells hitting the ground to his left in a steady pattern, like rainfall. He heard Cream and the armored chopper squeal around his back, taking a position on his right, also adding to the barrage. Narrowing his eyes, Tails counted upwards of thirty more assault type bots, and just as many badnicks reforming for a counterattack.

"I need nine seconds!" he yelled, decision made.

'Looks like I've got no choice!' Tails flattened himself close to the ground, and shielded his body with his tails. Plasma blasts raked the ground, and he felt them even through his normally impenetrable defense. Reaching into his travel cloak, he pulled out his last trump card. It appeared to be a simple tube. Twisting it, it activated - blue and yellow lines of light crawling along the surface. He then withdrew a trio of power rings, and slipped them around the tube. Emerging from his self made cover, Tails heaved the composite construct across the battlefield.

"Run!" he yelled, turning and spinning up his tails for maximum acceleration. "Close your eyes and run!"

Silver also turned, running as best he could through the enemy fire, while Cream turned the armored cycle around and gunned the engines. A flurry of enemy shots hit home, however, blowing out a reinforced wheel and tearing apart the lightly armored rear of the vehicle. Cream yelled, bailing, just as Silver turned to get close enough to catch her. Holding her in his good arm, the hedgehog felt the explosion as the bike's hydrogen engine crumpled and combusted. Ahead of them, Tails slowed, holding out his hand.

In his pilot's seat, Snively angled his mech's instruments downward.

"_What _**is** that…?"

* * *

Blaze woke up, wincing at the light that streamed in through her window.

"Morning, already?"

A quick look at the old flip-switch clock in her room didn't agree. Rubbing her eyes, the time traveling feline pushed herself up and got out of bed. It was dark again, but she could still see fairly well, even in the low light conditions. Pushing aside the thin curtains, she watched, half asleep, as a small mushroom cloud crested the ruined husk that was The Ring.

Glancing at the door to the living room, she felt no need to check.

He wasn't there.

"Silver. You idiot."

* * *

Cream still had her hands over her eyes, and she still only saw white light. Stumbling, she tripped and hit the ground. What she had tripped over, she couldn't tell. Scrabbling forward with her right hand, keeping the left over her face, she felt sunburned all over, despite her clothes and fur. She felt a hand, and grabbed it.

"Cream!"

"Tails!"

She pulled just as he did, and she fell against a living breathing body. The warmth helped calm her frayed nerves. Opening her eyes, trying to see him, she blinked. The whiteness was starting to fade, but it was still hard to see anything clearly. It was like looking through stained glass.

He coughed, and she felt his body move. Then, after another pull, she felt her back rest against cool brick. For the first time, she felt the wind, blowing hot and wild all around them. She sat there with him, clutching each other's hands, as their vision slowly returned. She finally saw him: battered and bruised, one hand holding hers, the other still clutching his weapon. She could see burns on his back and shoulders, and his traveling cloak was gone.

Daring, at last, to look over the wall behind them, Cream saw a dissipating column of fire and smoke, stretching like a spear into the sky. The ground beneath couldn't be seen through the dust and the haze, but it had to be Hell on Mobius. There was no sign of the mysterious white hedgehog.

"Hell of a second date…" she joked. Half-joked.

Tails let out a single bark of a laugh. "I was only half sure it wouldn't fizzle. Good thing I only used three rings instead of my originally planned five."

Cream shielded her face again, as bits and pieces of metal: nuts and bolts and scraps of all sorts, fell from the sky. One hit her hand, and she flinched – it was hot! For a minute more, the two of them just sat there, letting the feeling return to their bodies. Then, Tails grimaced and pushed himself up.

"Show me where you dropped off that lynx…" he said; a serious look in his eyes. "He has a lot of talking to do."

She nodded slowly. "What about… that hedgehog…?"

Tails' eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Chasing down hedgehogs…" he brushed the three ruffled and split bangs out of his eyes. "Isn't that the story of my life?"

* * *

Captain Anderson's eyes reactivated.

"That's right. We have just enough of a sample. Yes. He left quite a mess."

Scanners malfunctioning, he tried to magnify on a target some distance away, further in the room. It was difficult to discern just what was happening. Had The Office sent backup? He could still be salvaged.

"Should I proceed with sanitation of the area?"

Unable to focus on the sound of the voice, Anderson's scanners found one of the bodies of his mobian soldiers nearby. He had a bullet in his skull, still bleeding; still recent.

"Roger that."

The voice faded away, with the sound of footsteps. A second later, the walls lit up, consuming everything in fire. Captain Anderson continued to function until a support beam fell, crushing his neural command node.

* * *

Morning.

The next day, Tails woke up instantly, like he always did. There seemed to be little in the way of drowsiness, anymore. Instead, he woke up, and went straight to the Ring Pool for stretches, exercises, and preparation for the rest of the day. Last night, his dreams had been a confusing series of images… some had been memories. Strong memories. He had seen fire again, and the voice had spoken to him. He remembered that, in the dream, he had looked up through a sky shrouded by dark clouds, and seen a ball of light, not the sun, but trailing fire. Closer and closer it had gotten, and louder and louder the screams became, before…

He woke up.

Eventually, almost everything from his dream had faded away, everything except that white light in the sky. Thinking back, he remembered that the screams had not bothered him – he felt that he was slowly getting desensitized to them – rather: the coming of this light had filled him with a sense of purpose and joy. He had wanted it to come. He had wanted it to consume him and fill his body with its terrible energy…

Tails sat by the ring pool, his mind clear, but his thoughts focused. His left arm was covered in bandages (again), but his torso was bare save for a few patches taped over his fur. Next to him, two small devices sat in the grass, beeping and humming. The two tailed fox held a power in each hand. To an observer, he seemed to be doing nothing in particular. In fact, he was channeling chaos energy from one ring, through his body, and into another.

A crackle of yellow electricity ran down his right arm.

Gradually, the power ring in his left hand began to fade. It started at the edges, as it grew less luminous. Then, cracks began to appear in the formerly solid ring, seemingly random at first, but then resolving into a fine web of interlaced lines. Normally, a power ring, when used, simply vanished. This time, the inert body of it began to show. As the light within it faded, the ring began to shrink, and then crumple, like paper. The other ring, meanwhile, continued to burn as brightly as ever.

Tails opened his eyes, and noted the withered husk of a ring left in his hand. It was all but unrecognizable. Holding it up for a closer look, a stray breeze and the motion of his hand combined to crumply what little structure remained. Closing his fist, Tails crushed what was left into his glove. Taking a deep breath, the light in the other power ring intensified and then dimmed down to normal.

Midnight blue eyes opened.

"I wasn't expecting you to show up."

"Do you mind?"

"No. I suppose I don't."

Cream sat nearby, her back against a tree. Her wounds had been minor compared to his, but she didn't have the benefit of accelerated chaos energy healing. A cut on her forehead looked particularly bad, and had required a few stitches on their return to Knothole. The trip back had not been swift. After calling for a helicopter, and retrieving the very fortunate-to-be-alive underworld negotiator, the two of them had had to trek to the evac point.

"You brought in a pretty talkative guy," she commented, handing him a few sheets of paper clipped together. "Courtesy of Emergency Management. I'm just a trusted courier."

"**We** brought him in, Cream," Tails corrected her as he reached over to take the documents. Reading through them, his expression became, if anything, even more somber. After a while, he put the papers down and picked up some of his other work. All around him were clipboards and manila folders labeled 'Top Secret' and branded with the Seal of the King.

"Cream," he finally broke the silence. She turned to him, eyes open.

"What?"

"What's your clearance level? Malakim?"

"Symphony, actually," Cream replied, and smiled at his shock. "The same as Bunnie's. I guess Sally figured we'd tell each other _everything_."

"Ha!" That earned a rare and genuine laugh from him. "Well, that is pretty high. Officially, I'm only Symphony, too. But I effectively have Throne level clearance."

"You run programs Sally doesn't want to know about," Cream guessed. Correctly. "So you have her level of clearance."

Tails leaned back slightly, but didn't deny it.

"I'd be knighted too, but that has an age requirement of seventeen," he said, and held one of the clip boards up to his mouth. He rested his hand under his chin as he thought about something.

"You doing anything particularly underhanded?" she asked.

"They don't pay me to fight fair, and I don't expect the enemy to do so either," he replied, and then paused. "But I wouldn't call it underhanded."

"Not like bringing a nuclear weapon to a gun fight?"

He laughed again. "It wasn't really a nuke. I'm not allowed to make those, and we don't have the facilities to refine uranium anyway."

"You'd actually build nukes?"

"Of course!" he answered, and his smile faded at the look on her face. "Even a nuclear bomb is only a tool. The element, uranium, is not evil. The fission reaction is not evil. The fusion reaction that occurs in our sun is not evil. These things transcend arbitrary moral labels, like right and wrong, good and bad. They merely are. If someone uses these basic principles of physics to their advantage, they are merely acting as naturally as the first mobian who decided: why should I fight with my fists, when I can use this rock? Or another who decided: why should I eat food raw, when I can cook it with fire?"

"That's what I do," Tails concluded. "I cook with _fire_."

Cream plainly understood what he meant, but didn't look convinced.

"Is that what you're doing?" she tentatively asked.

He shook his head. "I just said I'm not allowed to build nukes. While relying on a superficially similar implosion event, what I used yesterday was totally different."

Against his normal tendencies, he bit back an urge to explain the actual mechanics of the device in long winded technobabble. Why no one in Knothole appreciated his technobabble, he couldn't fathom. At least the echidna and humans listened…

"What I'm working on here is something else," he finished.

"Then what is it?" She asked. "Anything you can talk about? …Without having to shoot me afterwards?"

He sighed, and handed her one of the papers from the clipboard. Cream took one look at it and realized what it was. "Is this the Tornado Two?"

The fox snorted softly. "Not quite. The Tornado Two Custom is **my** plane."

She cocked her head, not totally understanding.

"The Tornado Two," he explained, more clearly this time. "Was… is… just a prototype, a technology demonstrator, and something to try out new design ideas on. I built it from scratch, and I've customized it a half dozen times. At this point, it has far too many quirks to by flown properly by anyone except myself. What you see there is the Tornado Production Model. Or 'Cyclone.'"

"Production Model?"

"Yes." He watched as she flipped from paper to paper, each one covering different aspects of the design. "I've simplified the design a great deal, cut some of the redundant systems, altered the airframe somewhat, and incorporated the more stable and successful design features of the Tornado Test Model… the Tornado Two."

He reached over, pointing at one of the features. "See? I've replaced the old analog style cockpit with a digital one, and a new Heads Up Display. I've also removed the rear seat, to make it lighter and simpler to manufacture. Some of the additions are also Rotor's… the autopilot, for example, and several other electronic systems. He always was the better… electrician…"

"These are incredible…" Cream paused at a page, and gasped. "Is this…?"

"Like the latest upgrade to the Tornado Two, the Tornado Production Model can transform into a mecha for close in ground support. I've removed two of the hardpoints to allow for a less complicated transformation cycle, while enlarging the remaining three weapons systems."

"This is so cool!" She flipped the pages back and handed him the clipboard.

"Very cool." The fox smirked, and handed her a folder. "But this… this is what I was thinking the most about."

"What's this?" Cream opened the folder, and saw several dossiers tucked away. Each one had a picture, vital statistics, and about a page of commentary, charts, and a few clipped on reports. They were also, she noted, all a mixture of wolves and foxes, which came as a small surprise to her. Vulpines and Lupines were a minority in Knothole, and in the Freedom Fighters in general.

"Those… are my personal air corps…" He snickered as he smiled, and Cream could see his teeth and a glint in his eyes. "Hand picked and personally trained over the last half year. They will pilot the Tornado Production Models when their squadrons are complete…"

"Squadrons?" She asked, stressing the plural. "I never heard about any of this before now…"

His expression changed slightly, becoming more serious and reserved. "Of course you've never heard about it. It is a secret, after all. A little black ops program I'm running."

"I didn't know you had that kind of authority…"

He shrugged.

"This is the future… the future of our fight against the Eggman!" He growled, low in his throat, the name alone making him a little angry. "Ever since I began designing weapons for the Kingdom of Acorn, I've always known that it would come to this. The Freedom Fighters are Sally's Army… Sonic's Army… But this will be mine. Mine!"

Scratching his chin, he licked his lips. "I got the idea when I was in Station Square, and I saw their Air Armada: the New Terran Navy. While I negotiated for the hull of one of their 'Octavian' class escort carrier for use in the Blue Typhoon, I started to think about our strategic situation. Most of our fighting is here, in our own back yard. We don't need many capital ships to function as mobile, shielded command centers."

"So, back then, I began making plans for my elite corp. of fliers… and for the Cyclone Squadrons. After I began taking out patents on my designs: the rifles, the machine guns, the city cloak, the shield systems, all of it, King and Country began to owe me no small amount of money and political favors. I used them to secure the resources I need."

"I… I didn't know you made money from this," Cream said, cautiously.

Tails shook his head. "Don't misunderstand… the mobian credits that the King prints are all but useless outside the Kingdom. I don't need that. What I **need** are raw materials and other goods, many of which I then trade outside the Kingdom for a profit. It is from _these_ accounts that I draw the funds I need for My Army."

"You mean… your pilots and planes?"

"And mobians to build those planes." The kitsune pointed out. "Finding the right pilots was actually very easy. They're all taken from resistance groups and Freedom Fighter cells that have previously seen heavy combat and taken heavy losses. Then, I had them screened for loyalty and devotion… many thought they were entering the King's Royal Secret Service. Instead they ended up in mine."

"I see." She gave him back the portfolios. "And the planes…?"

"Therein was the problem. Originally, I had planned to manufacture them either here, in Knothole, or in… another location. That proved unfeasible. Already many of our arms and armaments are produced here in a rather ad hoc fashion. That's ok for machining rifles, bombs, and the like… And Rotor's boys can handle most of the complex stuff using our Fab. But for numerous reasons, it was not the ideal environment to produce the Cyclone in."

Cream started to wonder just what those 'numerous reasons' were.

"Long story short, the planes are being built on Angel Island…" He paused, and looked at her. "Cream?"

"Um." She perked up. "Yes?"

"You're not going to tell anyone about this, are you?" He asked softly. "It **is** top secret. I shouldn't even be telling you, really. But I …trust you. You won't tell a soul?"

"Of course not!" She nodded quickly. "No one!"

"Good." Tails leaned in a little closer. "Not even your sister, understood? Not even Bunnie."

"She… doesn't know?" The bunny sounded surprised.

"Like I said, it's top secret. You'd be surprised how few people outside myself and the King know about it…" He faced forward and kept walking. Arm in arm, she went along with him.

"So…" She ventured. "Um… how many planes are we talking about? Eight? Ten?"

"Twenty one," he answered. "I plan to begin strikes on Robotropolis in two to three months, once that number reaches forty two."

"Forty two?" she took in a sharp breath. "Forty two?!"

He gave her a sidelong look. "Forty two. By the time my facility on Angel Island reaches full production speed, it'll be producing a new Cyclone every one and a half days."

"Who… exactly… is building these, Miles?" She looked at the blueprints more nervously than before.

The fox stiffened a fraction. "A private contractor. Certain sectors of the economy there need jobs, you see. And certain parties need a way to make an honest living and contribute to their communities. Feed their families. Help their people. I'm providing that honest work. I'm investing in their communities."

"That's a good thing, I guess…"

"And if it helps us win this war," he continued, "How could it not be a good thing?"

"Ok." She seemed satisfied with that. Then she noticed that underneath the clipboard and the folder was a brown manila envelope. It was unlabeled.

"What's this?" She asked.

Once again, his expression stiffened a fraction as she opened it and peeked inside. "The envelope? Nothing. Just a few experiments of mine."

Cream thought about that, even as she daringly pulled out the first piece of paper. Tails was the main weapons designer for the Kingdom. She knew this all too well. However, from what he had both said, and implied, it also seemed as though there were major powers keeping him from 'pushing the envelope' as much as he would prefer. Her gut instinct told her that the last few documents he had with him were more weapons designs to be used against Robotnick, and for some reason this worried her.

"This is…!" she read the header, and what it proposed.

"Some mobians…" Tails explained, sitting closer to her now, and speaking through clenched teeth. "Do not understand that this is a **war**; that our very survival is on a razor's edge. So they draw arbitrary lines, and say, 'You may not cross!' They say, 'We cannot try this!' I only want to save them! I only want to help and be useful! How can we win if we limit ourselves?"

"But this is…"

"Only a suggestion," he cut her off. "It merely states that with a few things I do not already have access to, we could build an electromagnetic pulse weapon of incredible power… I have studied the specifics of his robots and designs, and I know for a fact that Robotnick does not shield any of his lower echelon foot solders against electromagnetic warfare! I proposed that an EMP pulse could leave the city vulnerable to a large scale assault."

He 'hmfed' angrily.

"There was… some concern what the pulse would do to the roboticized mobians, the robians, in the city and especially near the blast. Even Rotor was against the idea! He said there was a 'strong possibility' that the pulse would wipe out their unshielded memory banks, so that when he finally got around to deroboticizing them… whenever the Hell that was… they'd end up mindless vegetables. Now, admittedly, that is a potential problem, but to end the war in one fell swoop! Wouldn't it be worth it?"

Cream shook her head. "There had to be a better way, Miles…"

"That's exactly what Sally said!" He ground his teeth together. "Sometimes I think they don't have the stomach for a true war… Do you have any idea how many will die when we make the final push on the city? **Forty to Fifty thousand**!"

It was the first, ever, that she recalled him raising his voice like that.

He coughed, and nervously smoothed over his hair.

"Forty to fifty thousand," he repeated. "Not including the thousands of robians who will lose their lives in the fighting, anyway. That was my thinking: that we should try our best… to minimize casualties."

Cream tried not to let it show, but his outburst had frightened her. She had seen him angry, and she had seen him fighting, but she had never seen him lose control like that. She supposed it was the topic itself. He was passionate about lives, after all. But she was no starry eyed fool; she could tell that part of his outburst wasn't over the lives lost, it was because he felt betrayed. His outburst in front of her had probably been building ever since he had quietly walked away from that meeting, who knew how long ago?

"The inability of some people to see the forest for the trees…!" He bit back whatever else he had to say.

Cream could guess who 'those people' were.

"You don't mean that... You're just frustrated." She gave his arm a squeeze, and he tensed. It was a slightly intimate response, and feeling his arm stiffen, she pulled back.

"I've been fighting all my life," he said, turning away from her. His expression was stony. Hard. "Sometimes… I think it's the only thing I know how to do. Fight. And destroy…"

"I don't believe that," Cream said, leaning closer to him but not actually touching him again. "You're helping to create a new future. A future where people won't have to fight. Where **you** won't have to fight. A peaceful future."

For a while, he sat there in silence.

"A peaceful future?" he finally asked. "I'd like that; it would make a nice story."

* * *

By the time Nail came by, Tails was deep in thought.

"You ready, kid?" The echidna asked, headscarf flowing in the breeze.

The kitsune seemed to be a little distracted, but nodded.

"You've excelled at external applications of chaos energy, so today I planned to teach you another mental exercise. This one will sharpen your senses."

"Sharpen my senses? Like super hearing or something?"

"No," Nail shook his hand. "No, it's not like that. It's about developing your other senses."

"Other senses? Ah, like a sixth sense?"

"Similar to that, yes: the ability to sense someone's presence. One of the aspects of Chaos Control is the ability to sense sources of power." Nail sat down next to the kitsune. "This isn't quite like hearing them or even seeing them, but just knowing they're there."

Tails seemed incredulous. "A 'Mind's Eye,' huh?"

"You've been studying!"

"You've been suggesting things to study."

"Here would be fine." Nail agreed. "It's peaceful by the Ring Pool, you're comfortable here, and that should help both of us concentrate. And for this exercise you **will** need to concentrate."

"Fair enough." Tails took in a deep breath, and closed his eyes. It only took a minute for him to reach a state of calm and mental concentration.

"Good," he heard Nail say. "Concentrate on the surroundings."

"On my surroundings? Like... nothing in particular?"

"Try to picture everything you can about this area."

"I have pretty clear memory of it all, if that's what you mean..." Tails exhaled deeply and brought up his memory of the forest and the local area, ignoring the smells and sounds that crept into his mind.

"Good. Now try to see everything as having an aura around it."

"'Aura?' What do you mean, aura?"

"Picture everything with an energy surrounding it. Like…" Nail thought about a good metaphor Tails would appreciate. "Like electrons orbiting a nucleus."

"Hmm. I guess I can try."

"Don't try, do it."

After a few minutes, the picture became almost outlined, accentuated, and rapidly widening, expanding. It took a while, but Tails slowly become almost comfortable in this view of the world. It was similar to before, when he and Tempest had been hunting: a feeling for the world, instinctual, and oddly familiar.

"I... kind of feel something. It's hard to describe... It's sort of like sorting through scents…"

"Don't worry," Nail assured him. "I know what it is. Now try to tune out all the low power sources. Focus on the higher ones and the ones you're most familiar with. Try to pinpoint where they are."

"No problem... I'm starting to get the hang of this..."

"Try and match the… feelings you're getting, the auras you're sensing… with faces and names."

"Huh? Ah... I think I see now. Yes… It's just like a scent. Once you have it, it's like second nature."

"Once you get someone's signature, you'll be able to pinpoint him or her when you concentrate on it. Now, who do you sense?"

"I can feel... a couple people. I feel Tempest... and you. Then the others... Sally. Bunnie's is a bit fuzzy... and I think Cream's this other one, near two faint ones. These are probably Rotor and Antoine, but I can't say for sure..." For a second, his concentration wavered, before he regained control.

"You all right?"

"I'm fine, Nail. Please continue."

"Very well… What about Sonic?"

"I can't feel him around at all. He must be away. The signal fades the father away the person is. Odd that Tempest still shows up so clearly."

"Really?" Nail paused. "What's even weirder is that I can't sense him as strongly. Maybe it's some kind of kitsune thing. If you really want to try to find Sonic, let your mind extend. Don't try and hold it back. It will focus by itself. Concentrate on him, and try to find his signature."

"Hold on... I'm picking someone up... Oh. It's her."

"Who?"

"Rouge." This time, Tails paused. "What's she doing outside of town?"

"Let's… focus on Sonic, shall we?"

"Hold on a second... I wanna try something."

"I'm not sure if you trying anything psychic is such a good idea. Not with what happened before…"

"Why? What happened back then, anyway? I think I just fell asleep while concentrating."

"Uh... ask Tempest about it sometime. He probably knows more about that stuff then I do. So, what is it you want to try?"

"I've read some suspicious reports concerning Rouge the Bat. I think she's up to something. I'm going to try and..." He searched for the right word. "I don't know... 'touch' her signature..."

Nail made a 'hmm' sound. "I don't think that's wise."

"Why? What would happen?"

"I… I actually don't know. You can't 'touch' someone's aura like that."

The young kitsune obviously wasn't content with his new mentor's answer. "I see. I'll look into it later, then."

"Don't do it at all," Nail said sternly. "Besides this practice is not so you can cop a virtual feel. It's for detecting enemies."

"Cop a feel?" Tails was noticeably getting impatient. "Are you serious?"

Nail shook his head. "Never mind. Just try to find Sonic. And if you want a really shock, try to stretch your mind and detect Shadow. But then, you probably know the threat he represented better than even I do. The size of his… shadow of an aura is nonetheless very impressive."

"Shadow... Shadow... I feel like I'm panning out, but why are all of your signals dimming when I do this? Except Tempest's. His is as clear as ever."

"It may be that kitsune are more finely attuned to each other," Nail theorized. "Though I still don't think I'm sensing him as strongly as you are. I do have lock on Sonic though."

Tails continued, concentrating on the exercise.

"Yeah. I got him. It's hard to judge distance though this way... maybe if I... yep. These two out in the middle of nowhere have to be Robotnik and Snively. Looks like he survived last night's fun. Everyone's pretty faint, though. So Sonic's near Robotropolis... probably looking for trouble, too. Hmmm... lemme expand some more... Oh, wow…"

"What?"

"Thousands... thousands of them!" Miles breath caught at the mental picture of it. They were like a sky full of stars, stretching from horizon to horizon, dazzling him with their light. "This is… indescribable… Can't you feel it!?"

"How far out are you? I'm guessing Swatbots and the robotized Mobians..."

"No... past them... reach out FAR. And they're all clear as day! Nail... right now... The ONLY things I'm picking up are Tempest, and literally thousands of others, all hundreds... no, thousands of miles away... They must be... my people..."

"Hmm." Nail pressed his brows together, and pushed outward with his mind. At first, he had no idea what he was his protégé was seeing. The echidna had developed powerful mental abilities of his own, thanks to Athair's training and the power of the new Master Emerald, but he wasn't sensing anything that far out. Astral projection wasn't meant to be used at such a distance. The more one tried to encompass the totality of Mobius, the fainter the projection became, like light from a candle, fading in the darkness and distance.

"I'm going to 'touch' one of them..." Miles' words interrupted Nail's thoughts.

"I'm warning you, you do that and you might very well kill them."

"No... There's a reason they're all like this. I..." A pause. "Nothing happened. I... I can't touch it! Let me try this one... no. Damn! Something's blocking me!"

"Alright," Nail said, opening his eyes. "I think that's enough for today."

"Of course…" Miles grumbled, but instead of leaving the Plane, he focused back in on the area where he had sensed Rouge. He wasn't interested in her, however. Instead, his attention and concentration turned to the smaller creatures in the area: the woodland animals. Finding one in a good spot, he concentrated, and felt it become more compliant.

He opened his eyes.

"Finally back?" Nail asked, sitting across from the fox. "Tails?"

Tails had his hand on his mouth. He coughed a few times, as if to work through a dry throat. In truth, he was coughing back the urge to vomit. The experiment had been a success, discomfort aside.

"I feel fine," he assured the echidna. "Just a little disoriented."

"Yeah," Nail nodded sagely. "That happens after the first couple times. Once you've done it enough you build up a tolerance to it and you can do with your eyes open."

"You mind if we take a little break?" Tails asked, slowly standing up. "Please excuse me."

Tails ran.

Out of sight in the woods, he leaned up against a tree and retched. What came up was acidic and rough, but through it all, he felt a mental sharpness. A razor's edge. Nail, so afraid to test the limits of his abilities, hadn't known what he now knew. Domination of another mind wasn't just possible. It could be done. But then, what was Chaos Control if not the systematic relationship between what we wanted, and what the emerald energy gave us? Tails wiped his mouth clean, and swallowed a dry mouthful of saliva.

The question was: what **did** he want?


	16. Some Touch of Madness iii

Rouge was worried.

"Look, I can't talk for much longer," the voice on the other end of the line sounded apprehensive; afraid. "Johnson is gone. They shipped him out of Intel. Mastermind's orders. Miyizaki's running what's left of the Bureau now."

"Miyizaki?" Rouge tried to remember the name. "Who was…?"

"He's a hard liner from before you came over. Great War type."

"Why have I never heard of him?"

"He retired a few months before you got in the program. Mastermind wants to bring back the old faces, and start up the old wars. You know that. Miyizaki's in his camp."

Rouge anxiously licked her lips. She **did** know, more than most. Mastermind didn't just hate mobians, he wanted to exterminate them. He wasn't just from the old school; he was from its extreme, and injected with a healthy dose of genocidal mania. Most of the Station Square humans, meanwhile, had come to accept mobians as being at least something they could try and share the planet with. Johnson had been a good man, and Rouge respected him.

"What about Johnson? He isn't…?"

"They forced him to step down. Restructuring. But he's alive, if that's what you mean."

Rouge breathed a sigh of relief. "You think Miyizaki's going to try and tie up loose ends?"

"With what you know? I wouldn't bet against it." The voice affected a sad, angry sigh. "Watch your back, Rouge. I'll let Topaz know you're ok."

"Thanks…" Rouge's hand hesitated over the disconnect button on the communications panel. "I'll be in touch."

* * *

Tails paused in midstep.

Supporting his weight by leaning against a tree, he held his head in his other hand. It hurt – _his head hurt_. Blinking a few times, the kitsune looked down at his feet and saw a bird. He took a step towards it, but it remained still. Of course it would; it was dead. He stumbled past it, and past another dead bird, lying on its side. And another. Walking past them all, he left a small flock of the creatures dead in his wake.

Touching his mind had killed them all.

"Rouge…" he hissed. She had betrayed them.

All this time.

She had betrayed them.

He sniffed the air, tasting her in it. It fed the conflicting feelings that raged across his mind. How could she? Why hadn't he seen it? Why did he trust Sonic's judgment of character? Sonic, who blindly saw the good in everyone? Sonic, who foolishly put his own interests before those of King and Country? But, no: that was just Sonic's way. That was why Sonic was loved. He, Tails, would do what Sonic overlooked.

Tails tried to focus, but the training with Nail had made that difficult. Being in that animal, being in it and through it, dominating its mind and breaking it… leaving a husk behind… his chaos energy felt unhinged and imbalanced. The more he tried to force it to follow his will, to correct itself and do as he commanded, the more it rebelled.

_Betrayer!_

He saw her, outside her little communications shack. It was a lie, just like her! It appeared harmless enough on the outside, but inside it lay the means of turning Knothole into a smoking ruin. How had she built it? Where did she get the equipment? How long had she been spying on them? Her saw her, then, and he saw through her.

"Tempest?" Rouge called, having heard him walk, heedless of stealth, through the woods. "Tempest, is that you?"

He emerged from the shadow of an old oak tree.

"Tails," she recognized him right off the bat. Tempest had black tipped tails, and a black undercoat. In the light, there could be no mistake, not even for Amy grab-any-hedgehog-and-call-it-Sonic Rose.

"Rouge," he said her name with a growl. "You…!"

The bat girl took a few cautious steps back. "Tails. What's wrong? You don't seem yourself…"

"You," Tails repeated, wincing as his head hurt, feeling like it intended to split clean open. "You betrayed us. Just like all the others."

"I don't know what you've heard," she started to bargain.

"I know," he interrupted her, taking a few steps in her direction. "I heard. Heard you selling us out. Heard you passing on information. From the very beginning, you… you…!"

"It isn't what you think, kid," she said, hand reaching for the door handle.

"How much did they pay you?" His teeth bared, hackles raised. Rouge had always been taller than him before, but not any more. Not in what seemed like a lifetime.

"Just let me explain. There's no need to lose your… oh boy." She saw him heading towards her, and assumed a fighting stance. He reached for her arm, obviously planning to pull her away from the shack and whatever surprises she had inside.

Rouge's training kicked in, and she slapped aside his hand, grabbing the wrist and intending to get him into an arm lock. Except even as she made the movement, Tails' foot slipped behind hers, and tripped her, sending her off balance. Falling to the side, Rouge used her hand to brace herself against the wooden cabin. A stumbling step later, she was still on her feet, and as Tails grew closer she snap kicked, aiming for his upper tibia. A golden blur intercepted her foot, and a second later she was tossed into the air.

Rouge flipped, spread her wings, and stabilized herself. Floating a short distance, she landed on her feet… but she was further away from the cabin than before. He started towards her again, his tails swaying back and forth at first, and then lashing side to side. They also lightly hit the ground and slashed furrows in it as they passed. It wasn't exactly very encouraging.

'But he doesn't look well. He isn't thinking clearly, or he'd be willing to hear me out instead of fight…' Rouge then thought, bitterly. 'Not that knowing that helps me much!'

Resigned to the fight, Rouge ran towards him and jumped into a flying kick. As expected, Tails didn't even bother blocking it with his arm or hand. A white tipped, golden shield rose up faster than Rouge's eyes could follow, negating her attack entirely. It was no surprise that his tails were absurdly quick – they had to be to spin fast enough to lift him into the air. Falling to the ground, Rouge leaned into a punch, trying to outmaneuver her opponent. Two of her blows were blocked by his tails, the third and forth by his hands.

Then she abruptly leaned back, and kicked up, high enough to knock the hat off a mobian taller than herself. Tails made a mini jump backwards, to avoid it, and just as she expected, he attacked when given the chance to step towards her. It was a simple punch, without a whole lot of finesse. Rouge blocked it with her right hand, and tried to counter attack with a blow from her left hand. Tails' left hand came down, quickly intercepting and throwing off her blow.

They were extremely close now. Too close, Rouge hoped, for Tails to actually use his tails. She kneed up, aiming for his groin. To her slight astonishment (she had read enough reports on his ever improving martial progress) the blow connected, causing him to wince and stumble back. It also meant she was back in the kill zone of his tails. Without even pausing to think about another attack, Rouge jumped straight up. Looking down past her feet, she could see his tails retracting from their strikes.

Had she stood still, it was likely she'd have been impaled…

Turning gracefully, the bat swooped down to the ground and ran for the door of her cabin. It wasn't reinforced or anything. It really had just been a conveniently located woodcutter's shack she'd found to set up shop in. Closing the door anyway, and bringing down the block of wood that passed for a lock, she ran to the other end by the concealed communications gear (rather cleverly hidden inside and around some actual broken down radio equipment).

Behind her, the door splintered, as a white tip pierced the door just above the main brace. Another tip then punctured the door, and the two moved in a scissor movement, slicing clean through layers of plywood. It fell apart a second later as Tails cleared away what was left with his hands. By then, Rouge was ready.

The gun in her hands probably looked small, but it packed a punch.

"Hold it right there, kid!" She just hoped he knew that, too. "Don't make me shoot you!"

Tails pushed aside the last piece of the door, but didn't enter the cabin.

"I know this looks bad," she admitted. "In fact, Tempest actually beat you to me."

"Tempest did?" he asked. "But…"

_"Interesting smell on you. Let me guess… Rouge?"_

_"It is not my concern what the Princess thinks of her, or that little blue rodent. I told you to avoid her, so you will."_

"That's right, he found me out here. Now, look," she tried to sound reasonable. "I'm not selling out Knothole. I'm going to put my weapon down, and we're going to talk this over, ok?"

Tails rested his hands on the sides of the door. For a moment, Rouge thought he would move, but he kept still. Her trigger finger eased, and then, ever so slowly, she pointed the gun away from him and up into the air. He shook his head, slowly, and his body started to visibly relax.

"But I heard you…" he started. "I heard you… telling them…"

"I was talking to someone, but he wasn't an enemy." Rouge remembered what Tempest had said before, that if anyone could understood her situation it was the once youthful fox in front of her.

"Who was it?" he asked, with a mixture of wariness and confusion. She could tell, though, that he _wanted_ to believe in her.

"It was someone I knew from back when I… when we… worked for Station Square. Remember?" He nodded, and she continued, "Right now, he's working undercover in Megalopolis. Did you ever meet my partner, Topaz? I'm sure you saw her once or twice." He nodded again, coming around.

"She's there, too," Rouge explained. "They're working for Mastermind, but they're also trying to stop him from the inside. They're our friends from GUN. The President may be gone, even the city may be gone, but there are still people who want to help us there. I **am** spying… but I'm also giving information to the only friends we have who are worth a damn!"

"I thought…" Tails hands fell from the sides of the door frame. He took a step back, holding his head. "I just. I just thought you were…"

"Tempest thought the same thing," Rouge said, and put the gun back down. "Are you ok?"

"I'm sorry, Rouge. I… I don't know what came over me. I was just… angry and not thinking and…" he sucked in a deep breath, obviously trying to reign himself in. "And I feel strange. No: not strange. How I feel is…"

Walking carefully around the ruined cabin door, Rouge got close enough to touch him on the shoulder. He could help her. Tails was young, but he was the only one of Sonic's inner circle with significant experience working for GUN; he wouldn't judge her for working with humans. He was also one of the most important of the core Freedom Fighters. In fact, going by what she knew, it was likely that he was the most important of them all. Without him, the war effort would literally fall apart for lack of weaponry, supplies, and outright initiative. Sonic could fight in any condition, anywhere, but the rest of the army ran on logistics, and not chili dogs and power rings.

"Rouge," he said her name, a little thrown by the gesture. He stared at her for a few seconds before wincing again, and holding his head.

"Tails?"

"I…" he faltered, and he looked at her from behind his hand. "You're… making me feel…"

Letting his shoulder go, she watched as he took a step back.

"I want to…" he shook his head. "No, I don't! I don't… want…that…"

Rouge stared at her hand. Why was he…?

.

_"What's wrong with him?"_

_ "Among our people, this point in life is very… how should I put this? Very febrile."_

_ "Febrile?" Rouge asked. "I have no idea what that means."_

_ "Very hot blooded."_

_ "I still don't follow."_

_"Lascivious is a better word. Or maybe amorous? Randy?" Tempest groaned and raised a hand to massage his temple. "This is the point in his life where he looks for a mate, you see…"_

_._

"Rouge…" he muttered, at her again. "Are you afraid of me?"

Actually, she sort of was.

"No," she replied, standing her ground. "You don't scare me."

"I can smell it in you. And I can see it in you, too. You're not like the others. Something about you… is making me… excited," he coughed out that last word. "Yes. That's it. This body…"

He licked his lips.

"…**likes** you." his tails' suddenly stopped moving and froze in midair. "It finds you absolutely fascinating. I don't know why… but I can't make it stop."

"What?" Rouge looked down and noticed Tails' tails. She suddenly stood ramrod straight. "It's this _thing_ you're going through…"

"You said you weren't afraid of me," he said, lifting his head and looking slightly upwards. His eyes were blue, but darkly shaded, and not just by his three bangs of hair. "But it doesn't look that way to me."

"Actually…" she took a step forward. "I feel sorry for you."

His expression didn't change, but she did detect a glimmer behind his eyes.

"You feel sorry for me?" His tongue stuck out, licking his upper lip. "That's kind of funny."

Rolling his head from side to side, he then turned and started back the way he had originally come. Clenching his fists, Rouge could see droplets of blood running down from his palms. He got four steps before he started to laugh. Resting a bloody hand on a nearby tree, he looked at her over his shoulder.

"Thank God…" he chuckled again. "Thank God and the Source that it was you… and not _her_."

And with that, he disappeared into the forest.

* * *

"What were you thinking!? Didn't I tell you not to get involved?!"

Silver took the verbal upbraiding without complaint. Blaze had told him not to get involved, and now they had compromised their mission into the past, so she had a right to be angry. He bit his lip as she wound a bandage just a little too tight around his shoulder. Lasers were about the worst sort of weapon he could run into; just his luck that he'd ended up fighting a gang armed to the teeth with them. He was tougher than most, though, and the burns and shock damage would heal. At least there were no bullets or jagged fragments to remove.

"I couldn't just stand there and let…" he gritted his teeth. "Geez, tight enough yet?"

"You have to think about the big picture!" Blaze ripped off the end of the bandage, having tied and clipped it in place. The two of them were alone in their apartment in The Ring. Silver had gotten back without incident, despite the chaos in the streets outside. Knocking out the Bad Artists and decimating the Dance Freaks had left a power vacuum other gangs were fighting to fill. Meanwhile, dazed Eggman robots wandered around without guidance; prizes the gangs fought to destroy and keep as trophies.

The Big Picture.

"Blaze," he began to ask, "You wouldn't have just let it happen, would…?"

"What's the point of asking something like that?" she answered his question with one of her own. "If we get sidetracked trying to right every wrong we see, then we aren't going to be able to do what we came here to do. You need to think about saving the world we came from, not this one. That's what matters."

"I'm… sorry I caused so much trouble, Blaze," Silver finally conceded. "I just…"

"You just did what you thought was right. I know." She sat on the floor in front of him, her legs tucked beneath her. Rolling up what was left of the bandages and gauze, Blaze sighed. "You have a good heart, Silver. But you need to think things through before you act."

Slipping his naked left hand back into its glove, Silver asked, "What now?"

"Its risky staying here at this point," Blaze answered, cupping the medical supplies in her hands. "You're sure that fox recognized you?"

"He saw me… use my abilities."

"It's only a matter of time, then." Blaze's golden eyes narrowed as she weighed their options. "But the Rogues should be ready to move by tomorrow. We'll be ready when they do. After that, we'll just have to see what Mephilies has planned. We have to stop the release of Iblis, no matter what!"

Silver made a fist with his good hand. "Right!"

* * *

'Am I asleep?'

Tails stood atop a burned out landscape. The scattered skeletons of trees rose up around him, clawing the sky with jagged fingers. From horizon to horizon, not a single shade of green could be seen. Parched black grass flittered in the hot, spitting wind, and bare faced rock jutted out of the lifeless soil. It was a wasteland as far as the eye could see, without a single redeeming or familiar feature.

Up above, the sky stretched on, dark and starless. Only a faint white glow, from one horizon to another, provided light. It was impossible to determine distance clearly; light and dark, night and day, north, south, east and west, all blended into one. Tails stood in the center of it all, vainly trying to find his bearings. Finally picking a direction, heading towards what looked like a slight hill, he shielded his eyes.

A scalding wind blew across his face, blowing his bangs against his cheeks. He wandered, up the hill, and then back down. At first, he tried to follow the wind, but it came from one direction and then another. The landscape was so bare, so featureless, and so repetitive, that he soon lost all bearings of where he had gone, where he had come from, or where he was. The sky, his constant companion, remained mute and unchanging, offering no guidance.

"Where am I?" he wondered aloud, stopping by yet another blackened and tortured looking tree, devoid of leaves or life. Gradually, he came to realize it: that there was no where to go, and no way to get away. He was lost.

"Anyone here?" he called, squinting and searching the dead land. A rock tumbled down a hill. "Sonic? Sally? Tempest?"

Another rock tumbled, this time to his side. Tails turned, and saw a shadow looming over the crest of the hill, on its highest point. It stood tall and silent, set against the glow of the horizon and the pitch black night of the sky. Despite it being only an outline of a man, Tails instantly stiffened, recognizing the distinct silhouette.

Two circular eyes, white and bright, shone inside the dark form.

"You called for me?" a familiar voice asked, amused.

"No. Not you," Tails replied, hands balling into fists.

"But you did," the silhouette chuckled, and Eggman's voice made its identity all too clear. "You're lost, but now I'm here."

"I'd sooner see you rot in Hell!" the fox snarled, slashing his hand at the apparition. "The only thing I want from you is to see you die!"

"You'd kill me, if you could." It wasn't a question. The shadowy Eggman's grin widened. "But would you do it, if it meant you'd be alone?"

Tails anger simmered, but didn't explode.

"What are you talking about?"

"You need me," the Eggman silhouette declared with a smile. "Now, more than ever. Hate me. Dream of my death. Follow me with a knife in your hand."

He then pointed off into the distance, far away.

"Let me be your guide. I'll lead you to that bright land you can't quite see."

Tails stared long and hard at what stood before him. "You aren't even real. You're just a figment of my imagination."

"No," the silhouette shifted, pointing at him. "The fake one here is you! I… I am the _geist_ you wish you had. The motivation and conviction you doubt in yourself. I see you, **the true you**. Here, your pretense falls away, leaving your true self behind."

Tails stared down at his hands: they were small, and trembling. It dawned on him with awful certainty: he was in the body of a child, like when Sonic had found him. Like when Amadeus and Mary had briefly tried to raise him. Three shots, like thunder, shook the heavens. Falling to his knees, Tails struggled for breath as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Your true self," the silhouette declared, sweeping its hand away and then back down to its sides. "Motivated by fear and insecurity, following ideals blindly, looking for a father and a mother to coddle and guide you. You may be an intellectual genius, but you have the ambitions of an infant."

"No…!" Tails cried, but his voice was small and weak. "This isn't me!"

The Eggman shadow's eyes glowed. "Your existence is a lie, one you repeat to yourself every day. You busy yourself and bury yourself to hide your own helplessness."

"Helplessness…?"

"Your helplessness… in the face of failure. Your failure: to overcome." The silhouette loomed, larger now than before. "You've survived on half a soul this long, which is actually quite impressive. But how long can such false hopes survive in the face of reality? The limitations that frustrate you are not physical or intellectual. They are the cracks in your psyche."

"Do you really believe," the shadow asked, grin mutating into a smirk. "That strength or power will make them love you? Do you really think that they even want you to succeed? Do you really think… that there is even one place in this world where you belong? Where you will truly fit in? Among normal mobians or your even your own people? What are you?"

It laughed, long and loud, a booming voice that made Tails cover his ears.

"Hero! Villain! Sides of the same coin! Those with ability and ambition both make their destiny, and society labels them! Adherence to such labels brings despair and regret! Idolization is blindness, the same as devotion! Belief is another word for gullibility and delusion!"

"No!"

The silhouette raised its hands to the sky, and flames rose up in every direction.

"Why is the world so cruel? Why are you alive?" The great shadow's voice rose to a fever pitch, flames dancing higher and higher. "Who are you? What do you want? Why do you fight? You want to know why? I know why!"

Curled in a ball on the floor, Tails clutched his hands to his ears, trying to block it all out. "Please…!"

**"I know the truth!"**

And then all was silent.

"The truth you've been so afraid of," the Eggman silhouette's voice was calm now, almost a whisper. "Is that when you fight for yourself, and think for yourself…all the world is your enemy. Those are your limits, Miles Prower."

Tails small body flinched as he got on all fours. Eyes wide, he looked up at the shade. "My limits…"

"Overcome them. Destroy me."

Gloved hands clawed the lifeless soil.

"Overcome them. Destroy me! Level the walls between us and overcome your limitations!"

* * *

The shores of the Great Southern Sea sparkled as the stars started to come out overhead. This was the far side of the world, seemingly far from conflict and strife. The only light came from a few scattered tiki torches, nestled between grass huts, and shadowed by tall palm trees. This was a land far removed from the mundane world of the north. It was a land far removed from the continent of Overland, where the armies of humanity had mustered for their assault on Mobius, and far removed from the expansionist aims of the Kingdom of Acorn on the other side of the world.

The Southwestern continent of Mobius had always been overlooked. Much of it was dense jungle, and the fertile plains that could be found were not easily irrigated by the volatile and unpredictable rivers that crisscrossed the continent's interior. The Andhe Mountains, that ran like a spine from the south to the north, eventually merging into the Great Overland Mountain Range far to the north, also presented a formidable barrier. The people were simple and primitive, and the lands not particularly rich in easily accessible resources.

So it was overlooked.

Still, it had its charm… its allure. Especially the islands off the southeastern coast, where summer seemed endless, and the weather perpetually calm. This was a retreat and a sanctuary. Sitting on the beach, listening to the rhythmic washing of the sea on the shore, a weary old man finally felt at peace. Lowering his eyelids, he was tempted to nod off then and there, and unsteadily took one last sip before putting his drink, a hollowed out coconut, down on the sandy ground. The tiny amount of Ginger spice added to the confection sent a pleasurable jolt through his weary body. As it did, he realized: this truly was paradise on Mobius. If he had to die, after so many millennia, he would let it be here. The approaching footsteps on the sand were not so easy to hear, but the old mobian still managed just that.

Turning his head slightly, he grumbled a light rebuke. "I… do not need assistance, Jwahir…"

The footsteps stopped. "I am not your little island pet, old man."

The old mobian gasped, and turned around at the voice. Even with his advanced age, and his glasses, he had no problem seeing who it was standing just behind and next to him. This was not Jwahir, the young girl that the local tribe had 'given' him to take care of him in his twilight years. Standing there was a tall figure, and one he had hoped not to see again in his lifetime. The newcomer's four fingered hands clenched and unclenched as golden eyes looked down at their prey.

"You…"

The new arrival made a small shallow smile. It was a mouth full of daggers, mounted within black gums. What stood before him wasn't just a member of the draconic race: it was the God of Dragons itself, and his time lost acolyte from the First City. The ancient evil was just as Mogul remembered. Pits lined his jaw, flanked by jutting protrusions of bone in the semblance of a beard. Sharp sunken eyes rested below a jade brow, and a crown of horn and bone, rising up and into the air. Jade stones and ancient viridian armor covered the rest of Reptilian's body, save for a long serpentine tail.

"You did a good job of covering your tracks," the dragon hissed. "It took a lot of effort to track you down."

"You're here to kill me then?" Mammoth Mogul asked, and covered his mouth as he coughed. Theirs was a vendetta older than any existing mobian civilization. Why else would The Devourer be here?

"Well… go ahead, my young lieutenant. I'm hardly a match for you anymore."

"You never were," Reptilian replied coldly. It went by many names, but few knew the one it was born with. Mogul did. The Devourer narrowed his eyes and took a few steps closer, shaking his head at the ancient conqueror. "Look at you. Old. Disgusting. … Mortal."

Mogul just sneered. For centuries the Chaos Emerald in his chest had sustained him, and empowered him. Then, a few years ago, he had been sealed in the Master Emerald of Angel Island. Some time later, the Master Emerald had been shattered. It reformed as the so-called 'Lesser' Master Emerald, freeing him from his prison. But without his physical link to the Chaos Emerald that had for so long kept him young and vital, he had aged a lifetime in only a year.

"I've never seen you so feeble… look at how your skin slouches off your bones. The vacant, clouded look in your eyes, the slack in your posture, even your pitiful expression… you are nothing like the mobian who I once called Master."

The dragon stopped pacing, and raised his right hand: a fearsome four fingered claw, sheathed within a gauntlet lined by arcane glyphs and hateful runes.

"Perhaps I should kill you…" The Devourer theorized, "And put you out of your misery…"

Mogul was defiant. "Go ahead then. You can finish what you started all those centuries ago. And I won't even be able to raise a hand in my defense."

The creature's smile broadened, and he lowered his hand.

Mogul blinked in confusion.

Then the other mobian started to chuckle.

"It **is** rather sobering seeing you so decrepit, my old Master," Reptilian said, with amusement rather than malice. "What would Elishiva, Ignatius and Ysbaddaden think of you now? What of Saffire and Mulciber, or even loyal Rhadamanthus? Rhadamanthus, who gave his life protecting you from me? Who worshipped you as the god you claimed to be, and believed every drunken lie you let slip from your lips when verdant ambrosia parted sense from dreams? We who were your Seven Acolytes, the Seven Kings, your children… what would they think of you now?"

"We'll never know, Reptilian." Mogul snorted out of his trunk, with an angry rumble. His tusks, once a pearl white, now a dull gray, shook from side to side as he ground his teeth together. "You murdered them."

"Ah." He held up a finger, his tone condescending. "I only murdered four of them. As I recall, you cut down Mulciber personally, when he sided with me. Saffire… beautiful Saffire… she lost her power and was mortally wounded by one of your champions. I had nothing to do with it."

"You betrayed me!" Mogul yelled, and quickly held up his hand to cover his mouth as a new set of coughs wracked his frail body. "You… turned them against me… We could have ruled for eternity…"

"Under you?" Reptilian shook his finger back and forth. "I think not. You were a fine tutor, but when I became your equal… and then your better... did you really think I could do nothing? Did you think I would be content serving you for all time, like Rhadamanthus or Ignatius? They were my brothers, Mogul. Killing them was the hardest thing I've ever done – but I would do it again, and again, and again. Because, in the end, they were fools for siding with a weak old buffoon, and believing his lies. More importantly, I had to do it to spite **him**."

"Usurper!"

"Come now. The elderly are always bitter about something or another." Reptilian smirked and reached into his black cloak. It was open at the throat, and draped over his shoulders concealing much of his armored body beneath it. "At your behest, **he** sealed me away for the last two dozen centuries in that accursed Little Planet, but I'm not holding a grudge. Not against you. In fact, I'm going to help you…"

"Help me?" Mogul asked.

"Yes, help you." Reptilian withdrew his right hand from his cloak, and in it was a sparkling green jewel: large and radiant, pulsing with Chaos Energy. At the sight and power of it, Mammoth Mogul gasped and leaned forward. Slowly, hand shaking, he reached out to it, felt its power tingle his palm. It was so familiar, like an old friend, like an old lover, and overwhelming in intensity.

"A… An Emerald…"

"I believe they call my… this… set of Emeralds the 'Super Emeralds.' I'm giving this one to you, Mogul. I know you want it."

The old mobian's hand wavered, just inches from the gem.

"This is… some sort of trick…"

"No trick," Reptilian said, calmly. "I'm giving this to you. Take it. It will make you strong again. Powerful again."

Still weary, Mogul looked from the Emerald to its owner. The light was playing off the reptile's features, his bright yellow eyes sparkling like small stars. With a sigh, Reptilian crouched down, and gently put the Chaos Emerald on the sandy beach, nestling it against Mogul's long forgotten coconut drink.

"Take it if you wish," Reptilian said, and stood back up. "Or… you may leave it where it lies. And forget I ever came to see you and offer you this second chance at life. The choice is yours, my old Master. I will be in the village, near the totem these primitives erected in your honor…"

With a flourish, The Devourer turned and headed back to the gathering of huts and the light small fires. Mogul's eyes were still fixed on the Chaos Emerald that was in arm's reach. He never saw Reptilian's eyes glow or the confident look on his face as he left. He never heard the soft laughter, as Reptilian walked away. To his credit, Mammoth Mogul's resolve lasted almost an hour. Then, finally, he seized the Emerald… and in that instant…

The Devourer had him.

It was in that same moment of triumph, that the ancient mobian paused, as a fell chill ran down his spine. Standing over Mammoth Mogul's youthful, huddled form, the God of Dragons looked dispassionately to the east. Heavy brows fell, and his smile became a sneer. A storm was on the horizon; a storm that had finally found the will to manifest itself.

"Have you awakened already?" Reptilian asked, softly.

At his feet, Mogul clutched his face in his hands, sobbing.

"Miles, my young brother… **He's** doing it _again_, to _another_ one of us… isn't he?"

* * *

_"Maria!"_

_Shadow slammed his fist against the clear crystal, but it was too strong. He knew he had no hope of breaking through it, but he kept trying. He had to save her! He had to! _

_"Maria! Please… please don't…"_

_"Goodbye…" She turned away, her hand hovering over the controls. "Goodbye, Shadow…"_

_Then the force of the ejection pod detaching and launching threw him back against the wall. He blacked out for just an instant, and he was somewhere else. Back in The Lab. His father, his creator, was in the next room, talking to someone important. Maria was there too, next to him, reading something – some human magazine. He sat quietly, like he had been told, and tried to keep his thoughts occupied despite the staleness of the waiting room. Looking at the door, he could see the two tall humans talking behind the glass. Maria couldn't hear them…_

_But he could._

_"…Failure! This creature of yours is a waste of time and resources!"_

_"General! Please, hear me out! Project Shadow has the potential to be something truly great! It just needs more time! I know I can work out the problems!"_

_"You don't seem to understand, Gerald. The Joint Chiefs are not going to allocate funding for this nonsense anymore. This so called 'Ultimate Life Form' of yours… this weapon you promised that would win us the next war against these animals… it's a bloody hedgehog! Do you have any idea what showing that… that thing out there to the Joint Chiefs would do to my career? Do you?! Because I don't think you do!"_

_"Gregory…"_

_"We need actual concrete military applications! Not stupid looking animals! Our government did not spend fifteen trillion dollars building this space station so you could breed more of the critters we're fighting! You will either drop this nonsense and get rid of that… that **thing**… or it will be your head! I won't have you drag me down! Not after I've made it so far!"_

_"But it is not a waste! It will help us unlock the secrets of the Chaos…"_

_"Have you seen it? Have you taken a good look at it? It is a failure! I could have ordered a small armored division for the cost it took to grow that black rat! Now, I don't care what you do with it – toss it in space, recycle it for tissue samples, freeze it in cryostasis – but I want it gone!"_

_"I… I can't, Gregory…"_

_"You'd better find a way! I won't have General Corliss laughing at me! Not again, by God! Luckily, we have the Eclipse Cannon Prototype to show them or the Council would have us both hung in __Station Square__ for wasting resources needed for the military buildup…"_

_From where he sat, Shadow shivered, suddenly feeling very cold. Looking away, he quickly wiped away a tear. He was small and weak – he failed all of the Doctor's tests. He had yet to control this Chaos thing the Doctor talked about, and… and… Wiping his face with the back of his hand, he felt something on his right shoulder. Looking, he saw Maria's hand. He tried to look stoic, like it was expected of him, but she saw right through it. She hugged him, and he felt better… was it so bad to want this? Did it make him weak?_

_"MARIA!!"_

_And he was in the escape pod again, slamming his fist against the unbreakable wall between him and her. He had always had good hearing, and he could hear the troops just outside the adjunct lab. They were firing low powered rounds, but Shadow could hear the screams. Lab staff had been killed. And soon… he knew that soon…_

_"For God's sake, Maria…" He fell to his knees, still weakly hitting the glass. "Don't do this…"_

_She shook her head sadly, walking slowly to the controls for the ejection pod. "I want you to live, Shadow…"_

_"No! Save yourself! I… I'm not worth it!" He scratched at the glass, and then started hitting it again. "MARIA!!"_

_She turned her head slightly, looking at the door to the lab. It was locked, but the stormtroopers would have the code overridden in moments. Taking the last few quick steps to the escape pod controls, and wrote in the commands to prep it for release._

_"Maria!" he cried again, desperately. "Maria. Please… please don't…"_

_"Goodbye…" She turned away, her hand hovering over the controls. "Goodbye, Shadow…"_

Shadow woke up with a cold sweat, his breath in ragged gasps. Holding his head, he tried to not remember. A quick look around almost convinced him that he was alone in the personal compartment of his hover transport. His eyes darted back and forth, making sure there were no bugs or hidden cameras, and as soon as he was sure there wasn't, he cradled his head in his hands and cried.

He was doing this for her.

All for her.

They would all have their revenge. The humans who had killed her and all the others were long dead, but the world they had created lived on. But not forever. He looked to his side, at the black briefcase that held the red Chaos Emerald. Yes. Soon…

Very soon…!

* * *

_"Sally!" Sonic stood, triumphant, over the ruins of Robotnick's final gambit: a monstrous suit of power armor. His body was blaze with chaos energy, glowing a fierce and unrepentant gold. She smiled up at him, an exhausted but ecstatic feeling flooding her body. They had done it! They had finally won!_

_"I told you I could take of it!" Sonic gave her a quick thumbs up. "But I couldn't have done it without ya, Sal!"_

_"Sonic I…" she was about to say it, those words they had never been able to say to each other, when a flash of light made her turn back towards the way she had come. Back towards Knothole. Rising up over the horizon, she could see a great pillar of light and ash, burning everything in its path. More destruction rained down from above, blowing away vast swaths of the forest. Sally knew, in that instant, that Knothole was gone._

_And everyone in it._

_"Sally!" She turned at Sonic's voice, and saw him. His golden form began to turn orange, the flames turning suddenly very real. _

_"It… it hurts… I…" He fell, mouth moving but making no sound. She could only watch, frozen, as he burned, consumed by the power he had dared to unleash. And as he died, the world died around him. So she did the only thing she could._

_She screamed._

* * *

_It was the end of the world._

_ The end of His World._

_"It's falling apart!" "Help! HELP!!" "Run for your lives!" "__Aurora__ save us!"_

_Knuckles tried to brace himself as a pillar shot up out of the ground, collapsing a section of the street. Panicked screams assaulted the echidna Guardian of __Angel__Island__. He heard the crashing of stonework and steel, and the gurgled cries of those trapped beneath rubble. He had to keep moving – he had to find the Chaotix and the Master Emerald! _

_Everything… everything was falling apart…_

_Looking at into the distance, he could see the great mountains of __Angel__Island__ dissolving into one devastating landslide after another. Knuckles started to run, when the world suddenly lurched once again, and threw him off his feet. He tucked in his legs and tumbled, rolling in a protective ball before getting back his feet and skidding to a halt. For all of a second, he was steady, and then a massive section of cobblestone street work gave way, and assaulted him like a tide of hailstones. Closing his eyes, Knuckles covered his face, and weathered the storm._

_"Damn… it…" _

_Lowering his arms, he opened his eyes, and instantly wished he hadn't. His breath caught in his throat at the sight before him. He could see the edge of __Angel__Island__ tip up, the whole thing now at an angle as it fell towards the earth. Pieces broke off and hung in midair, at the whole of the Floating Island tore apart from the stresses imposed on it. It occurred to him, then, with a numb and distant realization, that the __Island__ wasn't just tipping over…_

_It was tumbling._

_Like a coin flipped into the air, it was tumbling head over heels, breaking apart. Disorientation and nausea paralyzed him, as chunks of Echidnapolis and the __Sacred__Island__ flew from their foundations, mixed with the bodies of the dead and the wailing of the living and wounded. And then, as his horror and despair mounted beyond anything he had ever imagined, the sky, once blue and tranquil, became earthen – a barren wasteland, bearing down on him at Aurora-and-the-Walkers-knew what velocity. _

_In that instant, he knew…_

_He knew that the Master Emerald had betrayed them. He knew that this was their end – his end – and that he was powerless to stop it. It was over. After ten generations, the Guardians had failed. _

**_He_**_ had failed._

_The last thing he saw before he awoke, screaming, was an endless sky of black and brown._

* * *

"This energy!"

Lara jumped from roof to roof in a blur, heading towards the old village section of Knothole. She had been just dozing off, on the edge of sleep, when she had felt it. It was a power just like the one embedded in her chest. Even awake, she could feel it, rippling through the air. It was Miles' energy, but unlike in her time, it felt… unbalanced. She could feel a sympathetic connection with it, and she knew others did as well.

Finally nearing her destination, she slowed, and made sure to cloud the perceptions of any nearby. She still couldn't afford to be seen, and certainly not here. Nearing Miles' dwelling, she held her hand to her chest, and the ruby – the Chaos Emerald – it held. At first, she had no idea what could be causing such an outpouring of convoluted Chaos Energy, but then it came to her.

**It** was starting.

It was obvious to any observer that the Miles of this time had been increasing in power, and mastery of that power. It had always been within him, but now, triggered by the instability of the Turan'ha, he was starting to move beyond simply tapping into the world's latent reserves of ambient chaos energy.

He was akin to a star being born. Like Sonic and a select few others, Tails generated tremendous amounts of chaos energy, far more than any similar life form. However, instead of radiating that energy, he acted like a gravitational mass, sucking it in as well. This natural limit kept him and those like him from imploding or spontaneously combusting. Given a massive injection of chaos energy, enough to overcome that natural 'heat sink,' it was possible for a being like Sonic or Tails to transform and enter a "Super" form. In fact, it was closer to reverting to his true form, without its intrinsic limit.

But at a critical mental and emotional point, the accumulated power of centuries of chaos energy, along with all that had been produced by his body, could form something new. The 'heat sink' didn't radiate the chaos energy, and it didn't make it disappear. Lara didn't know where it went, but Miles had told her what had happened to him. That energy, stored where he normally couldn't use it, and tied to his psyche, was itself beginning to transform. It was like a cloud of gas condensing into a star, but perhaps a more frightful possible analogy was that it was like a star turning into a black hole, or a star turning into a super nova.

The result would, in time, be a new set of Chaos Emeralds.

"So why…" Lara wondered, holding her arms. "Why doesn't it feel right? Why can't I hear Miles?"

* * *

_Mina ran for her life. _

_"Where is everybody?" She licked dry lips, and kept running. "Sonic? Sally? Antoine? Bunnie? Tails?"_

_All around her Knothole was ablaze. Explosions gutted the sky, and smoke blotted out the heavens. There was a crack of thunder, and one of the nearby huts exploded. She screamed for anyone who would listen, but Knothole was a ghost town. Everything was burning, and she was all alone. All… alone…_

_Stumbling, she finally caught sight of something… _

_A familiar silhouette…_

_"Sonic!" She yelled, and filled with a newfound hope, she ran towards him. He would protect her from this nightmare. She sometimes still dreamed of him, dreamed that he had chosen her instead of Sally. He held his arms out to her, and she leaped into them eagerly. _

_"Sonic… Oh Sonic, I was so scared…"_

_"It's ok, now…" he said, and his hand ran through her hair as she buried her face in his chest. "Everything's going to be all right…"_

_"Thank the Source I found you…"_

_"Mmm…" He slowly removed one of his gloves, and in a frightfully fast motion buried his fingers into her belly, piercing the skin. She choked on blood and fell back away from him. Another terrible explosion high above highlighted him, and she saw his eyes… they were cold, dead…_

_"S… Sonic…"_

_"Of a sort." He reached up to his face, buried the tips of his fingers into the skin right above his left eye, and slowly peeled his own face off, revealing blue cobalt metal, and red glowing eyes. She gagged in horror, and scrambled away, until a piercing pain in her abdomen caused her to cringe. Looking at the wound, she could see tiny… things, like silver maggots… crawling around, burrowing into her. In their wake, like strands of woven silk, she saw wires and tubes… and then Mina Mongoose screamed. She could only watch, horrified beyond sense or reason, as the tiny machines roboticized her, one agonizing inch at a time. _

* * *

_"Daddy! Daddy! Don't leave!" Rouge pulled her father's hand, trying desperately to keep her grip on him. "Don't go!"_

_"I have to, honey." His voice was soft, caring…_

_"No! Nonono!" Rouge cried, and tried to pull him back, but he was drifting away, and becoming more and more immaterial. "Don't leave me!"_

_"I won't leave you…" Rouge's father smiled down at his little girl, his beloved daughter. He was handsome and intelligent and charming, even as her mother was plain and unremarkable. As long as she had lived under his wing, he had been strong – the pillar of her existence. But whenever he left, whenever he went to 'work,' she would fear for him. _

_There was always the chance he'd never come back._

_"Be well, my daughter…" _

_And then he was gone._

_Forever._

* * *

_"Hold on guys! I'm almost there!" Sonic ran through the labyrinth of steel and glass, following the screams and the steady drumbeat of power. Dread building up from within, he burst through the final door, and into the chamber of horrors. He nearly gagged at the sight, at the experimentations…_

_"Bunnie…" _

_He saw her, the organic half, hanging limply on an inclined lab table. _

_"Ant…"_

_The coyote was in pieces, drifting around in a vat of yellow-orange chemicals._

_"Mina…" Cut upon and splayed on an operating table, wires digging into muscle… "Rush…" Lidless eyes staring back at him lifelessly. "Amy… Rote… Knux… this can't be happening… This can't be…!"_

_"You're too late, rodent…" A voice boomed, from all around. Sonic looked up, and saw Robotnick float down from the mist shrouded ceiling, trailing smoke behind him like a billowing shadow. As he landed, he dropped what had been in his hand at Sonic's feet. The stunned hedgehog could only shake his head in denial._

_"Oh gods…" He fell backwards, and scrambled away from the rapidly expanding pool of blood. "Sal… oh gods, Sal… no no…"_

_Robotnick laughed, loudly and proudly. "Do you see, my most implacable foe? No matter how fast you are, no matter how good you are, you'll never be able to save them. You can't be everywhere at once."_

_He held out his hand, and motioned someone to his side. Sonic blinked, and there Tails was, standing next to the overlander tyrant. This was not the Tails of his youth, but the taller one, lean and strong. He stood there, eyes distant, and Robotnick reached over and craned the kitsune boy's head to the side. Sonic could see something there, something metal._

_"He's mine now…" Robotnick took a step back, and smiled broadly. "And, do you know what is truly amusing, hedgehog? I didn't kill your friends… your family…"_

_Sonic shook his head, lower lip trembling. "No… No!"_

_Tails slowly smiled, and his dull eyes glowing a sudden and explosive red. _

_"I did."_

* * *

The silhouette hung, suspended in space.

"Overcome them…" Tails arose, his body back the way it had been. "A_ll of them_."

And he followed the shadow into the distant light.

* * *

**--Notes Chapter 5--**

**I rather liked** this Chapter, myself. I'd been looking forward to writing it for a while, and I remember getting the whole thing done fairly quickly. I got in a fair bit of action, more Silver and Blaze interaction, and a few minor OCs who did their jobs well (like the Rokk and the Negotiator).

We also got to see Tails slipping into ruthlessness, and some of the more specific frustration he has towards how people have been fighting the war. I also finally got to write a single Rouge/Tails interaction in, though it will be the only one until Chapter 8 rolls around. This is technically a lead-in Chapter for the more action packed Chapter 6, but it stands well on its own merits, I think.

* * *


	17. War Machine i

**"A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king."**

**- Homer, The Iliad**

* * *

Blaze was sick.

It was the worst possible timing, too. Silver tried to busy himself, stretching his arm and working out the lingering damage from the other day. By himself, the burns would have healed over the course of a few days, but with Blaze's Sol Emerald, he had been able to recover literally overnight. Some of the new patches of skin he'd grown were a bit itchy and still stung, but it was nothing to worry about. He'd come back from far worse, fighting Iblis. Emerging from the bathroom, having washed her face, Blaze's face was serious.

"You ready?" she asked, pointedly trying to keep him from asking her that same thing.

"Blaze," he asked anyway, "Are you ok?"

Heading into her room, she disappeared.

"Blaze?" he asked again.

"I'm fine," she called out, trying to assuage his concerns. "Just had a rough night, I guess. And now, I… I just feel a little sick. Probably ate something bad from the market."

"I actually had a rough night, too," Silver admitted, taking out his shoes and sitting down to put them on. "Dreamed about Iblis…"

"So did I…" Blaze didn't go into any detail, a sure sign that her dream must have been particularly bad. Silver's had been no walk in the park earlier. In his dream, Iblis followed them into the past, destroying everything. In the end, he and Blaze and Mephilies had tried to stop him, but their mysterious ally had disappeared, and Blaze had been burned alive. Silver had tried to keep fighting, but his powers began to fail. He'd awoken just moments before a wave of lava would have swept into him.

His shoes back on, Silver reached over to the table in the middle of the room. Blaze had left the Sol Emerald in here to help him heal. Holding it carefully in his hands, Silver stared into the multi-faceted gemstone. It was more a diamond than an emerald, about fist sized in its normal state, and about as thick as his thumb was long (maybe just a little less). Blaze had only been able to bring the one Sol Emerald back into the past with them, but it would suffice. Mephilies had said they would only need one, anyway.

The giant diamond felt cool in his hands, like a block of ice.

Silver stared deeply into its faceted surface, but saw no reflection. Instead, the void within the Emerald seemed to stare back up and into him. His powers came from chaos energy, just like Blaze's, but he knew so little about it. This was the era of great advances in those strange sciences that delved into the mystery of the Emeralds, but by Silver's time, whatever knowledge the present day geniuses unearthed had been forgotten by the common man. Where did the Sol Emeralds come from? What was their power? Why could some tap into their powers, while so many could not?

"Silver," Blaze said emerging from her room fully dressed. Aside from her normal preference in clothes - the exotic lilac and white combination – she also wore a brown hooded traveling cloak. They had to remain discrete, after all, especially now that the mobian authorities were on to them.

"Here!" he stood up and handed over the Sol Emerald. Blaze took it, and held it up to her throat. She wore a gold necklace, and when close to it, the diamond glowed and vanished. The necklace took on a polished sheen.

Blaze's hand, however, still rested on it.

"Blaze?"

"Mm, its nothing, just…" Blaze's fingers trailed over the metal. "The Emerald feels a little different today."

"It's just a rock," Silver remarked. "It isn't alive."

"I know, but," she fumbled for words. "Sometimes, I swear the energy has moods. Maybe it's just reflecting our own unease back at us."

Silver threw on his own traveling cloak.

"I think I'll actually kind of miss this place," he realized, taking a look around the apartment they had rented in, and lived in, for much of their time in the past. There had been other hide outs, but this one had been the most like an actual home, broken down and troublesome as it was.

Blaze opened the door, for what was likely the last time ever.

"Me, too, Silver."

"Well!" he flipped up the hood on his cloak. "Shall we go change the future?"

Turning off the light as they left, Blaze and Silver headed out.

* * *

The two soldiers were not being particularly gentle with their captive. Blindfolded and handcuffed, Scott had long since given up struggling. The morning had started like any other: he had gotten up, listened to the radio while he ate breakfast, and then headed out to catch the shuttle from the residential area where he lived. Except this time, he'd been intercepted on his way to work by two men in uniform. The next thing he knew, they'd put a hood over his head and tied it tight before cuffing him.

He wasn't sure how long ago that had been. Maybe an hour or two. They'd taken him to a facility, where he'd felt someone taking a hand print and a pinprick of blood for a DNA scan. He'd been thrown into holding after that: a stark white cell with no window. Later, the soldiers came for him again, giving him the same treatment. He'd demanded to talk to a lawyer, or to get a chance to call one, but the stony silent troopers hadn't answered.

Scott winced as his hood and blindfolds were suddenly removed, filling his vision with a bright light. Rubbing his eyes with his still cuffed hands, the badger looked up and saw fluorescent lights above him. False walls were propped up behind him, and to his right and left. His view forward, though, helped to identify where he was. It was the wind tunnel in the construction facility near the hangar. A fold out table lay in front of him, and a chair behind.

With a sudden shove, the two soldiers forced him down into the seat.

"That's fine. Leave him be."

Scott recognized the voice instantly. Being where he was, taken here by soldiers, and now him, it had to mean…! The soldiers backed off and left without a word. Scott couldn't see their faces: they had helmets on, with polarized visors drawn down. The badger did see one familiar face, however. Tails walked into view, holding a chair in his hands.

Putting the chair down, the fox sat in it.

"Scott the Badger. With no formal surname or identification prior to de-roboticization, you adopted the breed nomenclature," Tails recited, as if reading, but from memory. "Estimated age: 29 years old. Returned to being full organic on April 18th, 3234. Registered on March, 3234. Citizenship test passed on August fifth, same year. Social ID: 45201-67033. Having retained a degree of your programmed robian knowledge, you entered the engineering program here in Knothole. Graduated in Spring, 3235. Served six months in the MAF Corps of Engineers. Recommended by Rotor for Knothole Land Reclamation Project…"

The kitsune nodded to himself. "On April second of this year, you incurred a substantial debt. According to transactions, you withdrew ninety two percent of your assets, which are now unaccounted for. Did you get in over your head? Bet too much on a hand of Pazzak? Or maybe a Royal Flush that didn't pan out?"

"I…" Scott gulped, composing his answer. "I don't know what you're talking about, sir."

Tails tilted his head, looking at the badger with cold midnight blue eyes.

"My men have already searched your condominium. To me, you're already a dead man, hanging from the gallows. That's how the King deals with traitors, you know." The kitsune fox leaned back in his chair. "Let me assure you: there is nothing you can do, no way to talk your way out of this. Your life is over."

Scott sucked in a breath. "Sir! I…"

"No." Tails held up his hand, cutting the mobian off before he could try and make some excuse. "You life is over, but I am going to give you a choice."

Reaching behind, Tails retrieved a weapon: a handgun. Ejecting the clip, he showed the captive mobian that it was fully loaded. He then pulled back the slide, showing the bullet that was still in the chamber. Tails then flipped it around, and put the gun on the table.

"Your choice is this," the fox said, sounding completely impartial. "You can let the executioner fit you for a knot, or you can go out with some degree of honor. You've chosen how to live; now I'll let you choose how to die."

Thinking it over for only a second, Scott reached across the table and grabbed the weapon. Except instead of taking aim at himself, he directed the barrel at his captor. Tails didn't seem particularly surprised or worried. He even closed his eyes.

"Is that how it is?" he asked, deadpan.

"I had to do it!" Scott yelled, holding the weapon tightly. With his right thumb, he pulled back the trigger. "I owed them so much money! They'd have killed me! Don't move! I know what you can do!"

With a suffering sigh, Tails got up out of the chair.

"I said don't move!" Even without meaning to, his trembling hands squeezed the trigger.

A single shot rang out.

"You should be more careful," Miles Prower observed, half his face obscured by one of his tails. The tail turned from solid to fluffy, and lowered back down to the ground. Across from him, Scott was hunched over, a hole in his forehead leaking blood onto his knees, running rivulets down his legs and feet. Miles inclined his head, face impassive.

Ricochets could be very dangerous.

Walking slowly back to the door, he knocked twice. Stepping out, he saw the two soldiers standing guard. They were from the Department of Emergency Management, and both were mobians Miles had transferred from his own personally trained security forces. Even if his Knothole staff had been infiltrated, Miles knew his personal forces to be ideologically screened for any such _motivational failures_.

"He was the last of them. How pathetic…" the fox crossed his arms in what could only be called vexation. "Not a single one decided to die with a shred of dignity."

"Sir?" one of the soldiers prompted, waiting for an order.

"Take the bodies to the molecular recycler out back. We'll make some use of them in death, if not in life."

While others saw to it, Miles left the hangar and stood in the early morning light. It felt good: the sunlight. It felt better: getting rid of those informants that had infiltrated his Knothole facilities. The worst of the lot, he had left to choose their own fate. The others, the ones he suspected but had no solid proof of, he would simply fire. That left the three he had uncovered who had dual loyalties, working for him, but reporting secretly to Sally. Those, he would keep and give the mushroom treatment to: he would feed them shit and keep them in the dark.

It was time to bring in some fresh blood, to replace the day's losses. He could see them now, the first vanguards of the final phase of the war. Normally, the morning would find him by the Ring Pool, but this was a special occasion. His Tornado Two Custom lay lazily in the sun, soaking it up. The tinted cockpit would stay cool, but it would provide a symbol for the others to come.

Miles waited, watching the sky.

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER SIX:_

**War Machine (The Wolf and the Sheep)**

* * *

The Scar.

Formerly the 'Scrap Brain Zone' or simply 'Area 67.' Southeast of the Great Forest and Knothole lay a graveyard of machines and men. Before the Great War, it had been a major military hub and center of industry. When war broke out, it vanished under a plume of atomic fire. Years later, Robotnick had rebuilt and refitted it into a major base of operations, dubbing the complex of great automated factories the Scrap Brain. When Sonic infiltrated the base in an effort to shut it down, a cascade of explosions rocked the facilities, leveling the entire area.

In the present, Area 67 was a desolate landscape of treacherous ruins. Like The Ring, it was one of the frontlines in the war against the Eggman Empire. With the robotic enemy squeezed between the Great Forest to the west and the Marble Zone Mountains to the east, the battle lines ran from the mountains in the east to the Acorn Bay in the south, and from The Ring in the south to Starlight City in the north. Most of the southern operations were conducted by the Freedom Fighters, waging a guerilla war, while the northern front fell to the revitalized and reorganized MAF (Mobian Armed Forces).

Area 67 was a line of fortifications and trenches, supporting the mobian push south and east. It was also the current headquarters of the MAF's Army Group North. Fighting over the last month had recently turned into a standstill, as the Eggman Empire adopted a more defensive attrition based approach to the conflict. Still, it was one of the most heavily defended areas on Mobius.

At 08:40 hours, Mobotropolis Standard Time, several blips appeared on long range theater radar systems. Although the contacts came from the east, the initial intelligence estimate was that it was advance elements of the Eggman Air Armada, most of which had been destroyed in the Battle of Station Square. A series of reconnaissance drones were launched to determine the makeup of the invading fleet, and their projected target.

Jet stood over the briefing table on board the Black Fleet's current flagship, the BBA _Port__ Royale_. Not that he really considered it worthy of the title 'flagship.' The _Port Royale _was a mere _Tortuga_-class Brigandine, and while it was the most powerful ship in the Black Fleet, it would never have been a match for Admiral Bean's _Trinidad_-class Battlecruiser, or the old Battlebird Armada command ship, the _Havana_. But that was the sad state of the fleet, after years of infighting and combat losses (a great many due the actions of a certain two tailed foxboy).

Beside the Babylon Rogue stood an elderly peregrine falcon, a terrible scar running over his face and blotting out one eye. Admiral Tao had been a destroyer captain in the Great War – a profession generally considered to be a death sentence. The old Kingdom used destroyer groups as torpedo fodder, to tie up and encircle human fleets piecemeal. It was fine when it worked, but destroyer and sloop losses had always been disproportionately heavy. In the end, they'd lost the air war anyway. That Tao survived was a credit to his leadership and ability in the field.

When the fleet mutinied against the Kintobor Coup, refusing to turn themselves over for robotic enhancement, they formed the Battlebird Armada. For a time, they had fought to carve out a homeland of their own, among the islands and former trade lanes, however, patriotic attacks against Eggman shipping soon evolved into a broader war of subjugation and conquest against all land dwelling peoples. This had been the dream of the last Great Battlebird, leader of the Armada.

During that time, a young kitsune fox had been found during a raid on the mainland. This boy survived the slave pens, and his mechanical aptitude had been discovered by the Armada's demolitions and explosive expert: then-Colonel Bean. At first, the fox proved to be a valuable asset. He could even fly, and so many began to speculate that he would be the only non-avian to be accepted by the Armada as more than a slave. Bean's crowning achievement, with the boy helping his team, was the _Maelstrom_: a bomb capable of producing force just short of a tactical nuclear device. However, shortly after the initial test destroyed the village of Santa Christi, Bean's protégé went rogue.

Miles Prower turned against the Armada, and stealing several prototype weapons, he waged a campaign that tore the fleet in half. During the final battle, after the Great Battlebird himself lay defeated, Bean staged a revolt, killing the Battlebird and seizing power. Miles disappeared, and the remaining Armada split into four parts: the first was Bean's White Fleet, which the Babylon Rogues soon joined. The second was the Golden Armada, led by Admiral Hawk, which lost a pivotal battle over the Ginger Islands but remained partly intact. The third fleet, naming themselves the Bloody Robins, was destroyed by a trap set by Eggman Armada. Lastly, the Black Fleet, led by Admiral Tao, turned west and to piracy and smuggling.

Tao narrowed his one good eye at the battlefield laid out before them. An array of holograms projected, displaying topography, enemy instillations, and other targets. Different quadrants and sectors were outlined, as were projections indicating the range of enemy air defenses. Clockwise from Tao, the other captains of the Fleet's ships stood in attendance, their images appearing on screens built into the walls. All of them had smaller but basically identical map rooms on their ships.

"Their defenses are slightly different than what our intelligence indicated," Tao observed, pointing down at an area to outline it in red. "We can affect a breakthrough here, if we can take out _these_ overlapping air defenses…" he pointed at another sector. "This will allow us to land troops and seize the objective, here."

"Jet," Tao addressed the Babylon Rogue, as he highlighted several targets. "Your targets are these mobile SAM sites, and these radar stations. An additional squadron will attack these hardened bunkers, here, and this road. When your objectives are completed, you may engage any further targets of opportunity as you see fit. We will be relying on your Rogues and our air wings to pave the way for our capital ships."

Jet smirked at the challenge. "I'll get it done."

Tao nodded. "We will hold echelon formation until contact with the enemy. We expect the local air forces to consist of no more than four capital-class vessels, all either refits or captured ships. Let the _Port Royale_ take the lead, and strike from the flanks. We've done all this before; we will do so again. That is all."

The screens with the other captains winked out. When they were alone, Tao's one eye turned to the only other mobian present.

"I do hope this enterprise is worth the losses we will take, Babylonian," Tao grumbled.

"Tao, I didn't think you'd be getting nervous this late in the game. Don't you worry…" Jet chuckled in apparent amusement. "Once we have the item, the power and mysteries of Babylon itself will be at our disposal."

Tao saluted. "Fight hard, Wing Commander."

"Well, restraint in battle isn't something I believe in anyway," Jet replied, quickly saluting and exiting the room. When he was gone, Tao's eye turned to the display of the battlefield again.

"The power and the mystery of Babylon… and yet," Tao wondered out loud, stroking his chin. "Did Babylon itself not fall?"

* * *

Sally had never seen the _Blue Typhoon_ before.

She knew _about_ it, of course. It was the largest ship in what passed for the Royal Navy; the hull had been a gift from Station Square and Sally's mother, Queen Alicia, had christened it when it was first 'launched' at the converted Oil Ocean Shipyards. Tails had taken it with him to the Battle of Westopolis in Downunda, but it had never come anywhere near Knothole. It was very much one of their trump cards, but Sally had still never actually seen it with her own eyes.

Her surprise had been genuine when she found out that Tails had ordered it into the area to the east, to pick up supplies and transfer military craft. Exactly what military craft, she hadn't even known up until a few minutes ago. These projects had always been Tails' responsibility – she had no experience organizing fighter aircraft much less capital ships or Air Armadas – but it was starting to get annoying, having him pull these big stunts without forewarning.

Looking out the shuttle window, Sally could see the ship itself: it was narrow, with an easily identifiable front and rear section. The latter consisted of the engines, and it was covered with jutting angular armor, giving that area double the normal protection. Five armored corridors and a lattice of metalwork connected the engines to the main body. This section reminder her of the body of a fish, with a gaping maw at the front; a single inner section could be seen, with windows, but dominating most of the visible structure above and below it were armored sections, with no windows, and only red warning lights. The tip of a large cannon assembly could be just barely seen, peeking out from the upper half of the 'fish's mouth,' while both the above and bottom halves supported numerous weapons emplacements. Large stubby wings sprouted from the middle of the ship, halfway to the rear of the forward section.

Her shuttle maneuvered towards one of the open hangers that projected outwards from those slanted stubby wings. This meant that the hangers were perpendicular to the main axis of acceleration of the ship. Closer, she could see a bright light adjacent to the open hangar doors, on the open outside areas created by the slanted shape of the wings. Two point defense turrets swiveled in their mounts, but it was another beam that reached out to touch their ship. The shuttle buckled a bit, but then settled down as it was guided in. A series of landing lights blinked in midair, but were actually suspended by a long thin boom.

Sitting next to her, Sonic was also looking outside the window.

He whistled in obvious appreciation, and spoke up, "Boy, pretty big, huh?"

It was his first time seeing it, too, though Sonic had to have seen dozens of capital-class warships in his time at Station Square. From reports, the human fleet at the time had been quite large – and powerful enough to make offensive strikes against the Eggman Empire as well. The Terran "New Navy" had so badly mauled the Eggman Armada during the final Battle for Station Square that it was still recovering, much to the Kingdom's relief. The modern Royal Navy wasn't even in the same league.

"It **is** pretty big," Sally agreed, still looking up and down the length of it. She'd read, on paper, that it was some hundred and sixty meters long, and over thirty meters in girth and height. Actually seeing it suspended in the sky, defying gravity, made it seem all the more impressive. She also carefully bit back the initial feeling of awe she felt. This sort of technology had also been what they had fought against for a long time.

Didn't it contravene the natural laws to have such a thing floating in midair?

At the same time, what better way to fight an implacable foe than with his own weapons? Heading off for Station Square, Sally had never imagined that Tails would return so… inspired. Before that, he and Rotor had always seemed content to build some explosives to blow up Robotnick's factories, or to help her hack into this security system or another. The return of her father, though, and the rebuilding of the MAF had changed things. Mobians would be fighting anyway; mobians without super powers, so why shouldn't they do so with the best weapons possible? She had agreed, despite her natural suspicion towards non-Nicole technology.

"I can't believe Tails designed this… thing…" Sally wasn't sure what to call it. She'd heard the pilots refer to the ship as a she. A **she**! As if it were alive!

"Anything that flies," Sonic replied, falling back into his seat. The shuttle only had room for five, besides the pilot and copilot. Roaring through the sky, Sally had seen other larger shuttles, probably for boarding actions or deploying troops. Then there had been the fighter craft, all of which looked like Tails' Tornado Two. Sally sighed and also leaned back, looking up at the ceiling.

"You ok, Sal?" Sonic had noticed her agitation. "Something wrong?"

"I don't really like flying that much…"

"It's not just that, is it?"

She smiled at him, glad he could tell that much. For some reason, he was being a lot more attentive than usual. He'd even come over to talk the other day and hammer out their misunderstandings about Tempest. The kitsune was just a friend, but it was cute how worked up Sonic had gotten, despite his attempts to hide it. It was unlike Sonic to admit that sort of stuff, so Sally suspected Tails had talked him into it. The two of them shared everything between each other, after all, just like best friends, or even brothers.

"No," she admitted. "It isn't just that. I'm not looking forward to telling Tails he can't take Knothole's Chaos Emerald."

"Ah, don't sweat it!" Sonic declared with a grin. "He'll understand!"

* * *

"I don't understand…" Miles said between clenched teeth. "What do you mean, I'll have to launch without it?"

"The Emerald is too important to the city, Tails," Sally put on her authoritative voice. It was the same one she had used in the past to convince him not to go on this or that mission when it was too dangerous, and it had never failed to get across her point. "You designed the shield yourself. I won't risk it."

"That is why we're going to retrieve the other emerald," Miles argued. "The Solid State shield will only be down until we come back. The cloak won't even flicker."

She added a frown, too. "I said **no**, Tails."

For a few seconds, there was deathly silence on the bridge. Sally remained where she stood, standing next to him; her hands on her hips. Her kitsune protégé sat in the Captain's seat of the bridge, his expression and posture rigid. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, but his face remained expressionless. The rest of the bridge, buried deep within the ship, was completely silent. The Captain's chair was on a raised area, while the other five members of the bridge crew sat in sunken stations around it: two to the left, two to the right, and the helm officer in the front. A vast array of holographic projections and displays mimicked the effect of the bridge being out in the 'open air.'

Miles reached over to a button on his chair.

"Nicole," he said, slowly. "You have the bridge."

Nicole's lynx avatar materialized to his right, appearing full size and almost Sally's height. Sonic nearly jumped, since he had been standing right next to her holographic projector without even realizing it.

Sally's eyes widened in delight. "Nicole! I didn't know you were on board!"

"This ship is sufficiently sophisticated to house a perfect copy of me," Nicole answered with a friendly smile. "Minus certain time encoded memory files, of course. I periodically update myself by contacting the original Nicole. Our memories and persona are only as synchronous as the frequency of my updates."

"Well, you certainly sound like her," Sonic spoke up. "I understood maybe half that."

"Nicole," Miles interrupted, before she could start. "Why don't you explain it to Sonic while you attend to the bridge? Princess Sally, I'd like to continue this conversation in my ready room."

Getting up, he walked off to the left, where a door adjacent to the bridge opened on his approach. Sally followed him inside. His ready room was also obviously his quarters on the ship; walking past a retractable privacy screen, Sally could see a fair sized fold out bed currently mounted and folded up to a recessed space in the wall. The room was trapezoidal, with the western wall being longer than the eastern one (where the bed was folded up). A table along the west wall displayed a handful of artifacts and antique devices, while the rest of it was taken up by a pair of 'windows' that displayed real time images from the outside of the ship. There was a desk near the back, and behind it, the door to what was likely a bathroom. Several other pictures of aircraft and ships were mounted on the slanted southern wall.

"Tails…" she started to say.

"Princess Sally," he said her name with a cold anger that she couldn't ever recall hearing. He turned from where he stood, next to his desk. "I'll ask you to not speak to me so disrespectfully on my ship. I would also appreciate it if you referred to me as Captain Prower. Or simply Captain."

"Captain Prower?" she repeated. It didn't sound right. "Why?"

He ground his teeth together in undisguised aggravation. "A Captain is the ultimate authority on his ship, and I also happen to be the highest ranked political and military officer in this region of the country. While you **are** the Crown Princess and the head of the Freedom Fighters, you technically have no authority to give me orders when I leave Knothole. Only the King, the current Warmaster (of which there is none), or the Minister of War may do so."

Sally stiffened. "I see."

Miles nodded in apparent satisfaction. "Princess."

"Captain."

She shifted a little uncomfortably, and glanced out the faux window.

"Captain," she began. "Your request to appropriate the Chaos Emerald currently powering the Knothole city shield is denied."

"I've told you," he replied, sounding rather bothered by having to repeat himself. "No harm will come to the city. The cloak worked fine before without an Emerald."

"We'll be vulnerable to attack," Sally countered. "The cloak only keeps us hidden."

"There hasn't been fighting near Knothole for months. Not since we pushed the Eggman back into The Ring, and cut him off at Starlight. **Now** is the time to push harder," Miles explained, eyes glinting at the prospect. "However, the _Blue Typhoon_ needs a Chaos Emerald to achieve its full power! Once we begin offensive operations, we won't have to worry about Knothole. We'll be taking the fight to the enemy, not vice versa."

"It's a risk I'm not willing to take," Sally said, her stance on the issue unchanged. She could see what he meant, but she couldn't in good conscience weaken their defenses. More people depended on the Knothole city shield than on continued 'offensives.'

Miles frowned at her intransigence. "You're making a mistake. You're being too timid."

"Timid?" Sally snapped. "How dare you! I was fighting Robotnick when you were just a toddler!"

"I've been fighting **since** I was a toddler!" he snapped right back, taking a bold step towards her. "Where were you on West Island?! Where were you in Downunda? Where were you when Sonic and I stopped Robotnick on Angel Island? _Where were you_? You were hiding with your tail between your legs!"

She hit him.

Sally regretted it as soon as she realized she'd done it. Her palm quivered in the air, red from the impact. She'd hit him harder in training, even in mock fights, but she'd never _hit_ him; never slapped him; never disciplined him. Tails had never needed **to be** disciplined. He had always done as he was told, efficiently and to the best of his ability.

"Tails!" she cried, clutching her hand to her chest. "I…"

"I deserved that," he interrupted, holding up his hand. With his other, he experimentally touched his cheek, where he'd been struck. "I was out of line, and spoke without thinking. I see we just have different ways of looking at this issue."

She agreed, but she also wanted to talk about what had just transpired between them. Tails was never hot headed. He always thought things through, and planned ahead. Sometimes those plans went awry, but he never just jumped in. He was so unlike Sonic in that way. That he's lost his cool, and that she'd hit him… it was something she'd never imagined, in all their years together.

"Tails, I shouldn't have… hit you…" she broached an apology. "I'm sorry."

"Didn't I already say I deserved it?" He shrugged. "I'm not concerned about that."

"I am!"

He seemed honestly perplexed. "Why?"

"Because…" She struggled to say it, though she wasn't sure why it didn't come naturally. "You're like family to me. I've known you longer than my real brother… and I love you. I'd never hurt you, Tails."

"I'm not worried about that," his response was simple, and didn't address anything, at least in her view.

"Don't you…?"

"Sally," he used her familiar name, instead of Princess, and she took note of it. His tone of voice softened, though he made no gesture to go along with it. "I'll always hold a place in my heart for you. You **and** Sonic. But just like I don't mimic everything he does anymore, don't expect me to do the same to you. _I am me, and no one else._"

"I'm sorry, Captain," she inclined her head. "You'll have to get your Emerald elsewhere."

"Very well…" Miles consented, finally. "However, when I recapture the Egg Carrier, as I've discussed doing, this argument will just come back. And next time, I'll have your father backing me up."

"I'll deal with that when it comes," Sally replied. The issue had only been put off, but at least it was settled for the time being.

"Captain," Nicole's voice came in over the ship's intercom. "We're receiving a message from Army Group North and Supreme Commandant Burke. Shall I patch him through to your ready room?"

"Go ahead, Nicole," Miles said, turning to one of the faux windows, where a sea of clouds had settled in around them. The window immediately turned back into a view screen that switched to displaying a logo of the Kingdom of Acorn. Below the logo, the transmission code, date, and registry were listed.

A second later, the face of a mobian otter appeared, his hair was cropped back and he wore the black and brown colored coat and uniform of a political officer. As the King still had a lingering fear of a coup, he had Secret Service men installed with the authority to nip any potential military revolutions in the bud. For all practical purposes, it was these Commandants who actually ran many of the Kingdom's military forces, rather than his appointed Great War educated Generals and Colonels.

"Undersecretary Prower…" the mobian noticed Sally, and inclined his eyebrow in surprise. "Princess."

"What is the situation, Commandant?" Miles asked, holding his hands behind his lower back.

"We have a bit of a situation developing here." Burke glanced off to his side for a moment. "Several capital-class ships have entered our air space, and just moments ago, they began launching fighter and drone craft. Several of these vessels appear to have once been elements of the Royal Air Force."

"Battlebirds…" Miles growled.

"Battlebirds?" Sally wasn't familiar with the term.

"Remnants of the old RAF. They turned to piracy when Robotnick seized power," Miles answered, quickly filling her in. "I destroyed most of them before I met Sonic."

Sally was left almost speechless by that. "Before you…?"

Miles nodded. "I used some of them when I retook Westopolis and Downunda. But there shouldn't be more than a few scattered ships left. The Babylon Rogues must be with them."

"I suspect they are after the Emerald held in Facility-7," Burke said, sounding slightly worried. "We could use some assistance, and the _Typhoon_ is in the area."

"I'll change course immediately. What ships do you have available for your immediate defense?" Miles asked.

Burke glanced down, at what, they couldn't tell. Probably a report.

"We have…" he read them off, "The _Prince Edward_, the _Prince James_, the _Prince Emerson_, and the _Frederick_. The _Frederick_ is slightly damaged, but can still fight. Field repairs on the _Prince James_ have been going slowly, and she has only limited maneuverability."

"Hold off on a counterattack as long as you can," Miles replied. "Let them bleed themselves getting to the Facility. I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Very well," the Commandant acknowledged. "Burke out."

The signal terminated, turning back into the logo.

"Nicole!" Miles called, talking as he strode back to the bridge. "Ready all hands, and warm up the engines. We head out in one hundred and twenty seconds. Princess, you have two minutes to get to your shuttle, if you please."

"I'd actually rather stay," Sally said, as the two of them stepped into the bridge itself. "If that's alright with you, Captain?"

"As you prefer." Miles sat down in his chair. Next to him, Nicole turned from her conversation with Sonic, adopting a professional stance. "Helm! Set course to rendezvous with the _HMS Frederick_ and Army Group North. Full speed!"

"Aye, aye, Captain," came the response from the pit.

"Sonic," Miles continued, inclining his head towards the hedgehog. "Care to go hunting with me? First one to pluck one of Jet's feathers wins?"

"Alright… cool!" Sonic snickered, looking forward to an interesting match up. "Count me in!"

* * *

Sally gasped as the status of the _HMS Prince James _turned from orange, to red, to an expanding sphere with a warning label. During the flight to the battlefield, she had familiarized herself with some of the ships involved, in the hopes of playing some role in the upcoming battle. As head of the Freedom Fighters, she was used to giving orders to small units and cells of fighters. The _Prince James_ had a crew of forty six, including marines and air force personnel.

"They aren't just going to let the fleet form up," Miles theorized from his Captain's chair. "Estimated time to arrival?"

"Eleven minutes," came the response from navigation. On the main screen, an image of the _HMS Blue Typhoon_ sped across a topographical map, concentric circles around it representing weapons ranges. To the east, the RAF fleet was moving in their direction, pursued by enemy fighter and drone craft.

"_Frederick_ is reporting damage to their port engines," the Conn officer called over her shoulder. "She won't be able to keep up with the fleet."

"Tails," Sally whispered, leaning close to him. "There are over a hundred mobians aboard that ship…"

"You're right," the kitsune replied, and spoke up, "Order the _Prince Emerson_ to turn about and engage the enemy craft. Relieve the pressure on the _Frederick_."

Sally watched the screen as one of the smaller ships slowed and began to turn, heading into the bulk of the enemy fighter craft. The _Emerson_ was a captured "Egg Catcher" class Defense Destroyer, designed for anti-fighter duties. It had light armor and a weak passive shield system, and the arrangement of its modular weapons made for a slightly unbalanced firing platform. As fighter defense always took a back seat in the Eggman Armada, which specialized in bombardment and ground assault, this shortcoming was made up for in large numbers. However, in this case, there was only one DD against a swarm of enemy craft.

"Have the _Emerson_ forward all telemetry and battle data to our systems," Miles continued, sounding calm and professional despite the combat occurring miles away. "I was a close look at what we're up against. Nicole?"

Standing to his left, Nicole's holographic avatar blinked. "Receiving. Analysis underway."

"Cross reference with our AWACS. Extrapolate and identify their squadron leaders and their wing commander. Nicole, start launching our fighters and put them in a holding pattern. I want the drones in formation Tango-Delta-Tango up to and until contact with the enemy." Miles rapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. "We haven't seen any missiles yet, so I assume they're trying to conserve them."

* * *

Admiral Tao cupped his hands under his chin as he watched the enemy movements on the bridge of the _BBA Port Royale_. His own shipboard AWACs had detected the _Typhoon_ on an intercept course, and also confirmed that it had a maximum sustainable velocity slightly in excess of the smaller _Royale's_ flank speed. The ship certainly did have a nice set of engines on her, Tao didn't doubt that. Knowing that the enemy fleet would try and regroup around the flagship for a counterattack, Tao had ordered a pursuit to break them up, and harry the fleeting vessels. Ultimately, he hoped to avoid direct combat with his own capital ships. At this point ships too valuable to risk losing; fighters and pilots were replaceable.

The old warrior narrowed his eye as the _Prince Emerson_ made an about face.

"Relay this to Bomber Leader," Tao spoke up, recognizing the feint. "Ignore the Destroyer. Cripple the _Frederick_ and then finish off the _Prince Edward_. We'll let our drones handle the _Emerson_."

* * *

Far from the help of the _Blue Typhoon_, the _HMS Frederick_ banked to the right, massive engines flaring as it pushed them to flank speed. Another Eggman airship captured while in drydock, the _Frederick_ had already expended her compliment of drones and conventional fighter craft. It was an old Great War design given only a single post-war refit, and it had a large blind spot in the rear behind the engines, where there was no turret coverage. The Captain tried to compensate by swerving the craft, keeping his pursuers under fire.

While not the most modern or formidable design, the _Frederick_ was still not an opponent to take lightly. Against light craft, her two rapid fire triple 6-inch cannon turrets opened up with exploding shells at a range of more than 30 kilometers, laying down a fearsome barrage. Within thirty miles, her light Pulse Plasma cannons were also capable of targeting and saturating an area with fire, presenting a further hazard to enemy drones and fighters. Like the 6-inchers, they could also be reconfigured for anti-capship operations while in battle. The _Frederick_ also possessed two missile arrays designed to fire early in a battle and overwhelm enemy point defenses.

Zipping through the fire and the flak, a dark tinted aircraft dipped low. Two smaller craft covered for it, escorting it on its left and right, before breaking off and flying upwards. Bright red bolts of plasma tried in vain to pin down the large plane, but it tilted slightly, easily avoiding the shots. Leveling out, and swooping to just the right point behind the fleeing _Frederick_, the bomber unleashed a pod loaded under its starboard wing. Rocket motors burned, and the pod launched forward. The plane broke hard right.

The elongated hull of the _Frederick_ shuddered as plumes of fire erupted out of its aft section and it began a controlled descent. Secondary explosions tore through its mighty engines, sending debris and bodies flying through the air in its wake. Only the heavily armored and shielded hover-drive survived intact, forcing the vessel to coast in its last direction. It continued to fire for a short while, until the power fluctuations and straining power plant shut those systems down.

It careened towards a brown, dry hill, and crashed, sending dirt and rocks flying.

* * *

"_Frederick_ is down. Reporting casualties."

"They bought us enough time…" Miles stood up, staring intently at the screens and displays. "Deploy fighters to guard the _Prince Edward_, and have her duck under our defense umbrella. It'll be their next target. Order the _Prince James_ along a course: 12,2,19 to 18,4,28. I want her running parallel with us and covering the tops of our heads."

"Range to targets, 200 kilometers!" the tactical officer announced. "Shall we open fire?"

"Right!" Miles sat back down. "Let's make our intentions clear! Fire medium range missiles from tubes six to eighteen – target the _Antigua_ and the _Curacao_! Nicole, commence electronic jamming."

* * *

"Missile launch detected! The _Typhoon_ is firing."

Tao sat still in his chair. He was never the sort to stand of move much; it only distracted from his thinking.

"Their target?" he asked.

"Impossible tell, Admiral!" his conn officer made an exasperated sound from his position on the bridge. The _Port Royale_ used the traditional MAF bridge plan, even though it was a new post-war class of ship, a brigandine, built exclusively by the old Battlebird Armada. Tao's officers were arranged, three by three, to his right and left. This left him with a clear view ahead at the main screen.

"They're scrambling our AWACS," the officer explained, and gave another angry grumble. "Detecting a radio wave carrier virus! We're filtering communications channels!"

Tao's one good eye searched the screen, with the fleet display overhead.

"He's targeting our escorts…" the old warbird hypothesized, and noticed that two of his light capital ships had drifted ahead. "The _Antigua_ and _Curacao_. Order them back and ready a salvo of our own!"

* * *

"They're moving away…" Sally observed, watching the screen. A flurry of missiles, some decoys and some real, had been fired at the enemy fleet. The actual targets, however, seemed to have gotten wise. They were making sharp turns to get back into the interception zone of the _Port Royale_.

"Nicole…" Tails turned to the AI's mobian avatar. "Status of our electronic attacks?"

The holographic lynx made a frustrated look, the tip of her tongue peeking out as she put some obvious effort into everything she had to handle. The _Blue Typhoon_ was highly automated and relied on her as much or more than any of the organic crew members. In the end, they all needed each other. The ship could not be operated by AI alone.

"I've placed a bug in the _Nassau__'s_ computer systems," Nicole announced, with a small smile. "But they're on to me. They're shutting down communications and reinforcing their active firewalls."

"And our ECCM?" Miles asked, referring to the ship's electronic counter-countermeasures.

"Nothing I can't handle," Nicole confidently responded.

"We're losing missiles," the tactical officer spoke up. "They're diverting drones."

"_Prince Emerson_ reporting heavy damage! They're asking to withdraw."

"Let them do so," Miles replied. "Let's put up another wave! Six through eighteen again. Staggered fire."

"Aye, sir!"

The kitsune craned his neck, and nodded to himself. It was time. "We're close enough. Begin launching boats. Retake the surface! Redirect drones one through six to provide supporting fire. Tactical, fire on any surface targets in range. _Flatten everything_."

* * *

"Wave!" Jet yelled, impatience causing his voice to strain. "What the Hell are you waiting for?"

"I just need another minute!" the lavender swallow had, as usual, her face up to a computer screen. Her fingers moved a mile a minute over the surface of a flat panel-turned-keyboard.

"We **do not have** a minute!" He grabbed her arm, and when she tried to shake him off, he pulled harder. Normally, he went along with her and indulged her, so she was unused to him not relenting. Wave turned to him with bright, angry eyes.

"Don't give me that look," he cut her off before she could say anything. "We need to go. **Now**."

"But there's so much here! I haven't been able to decipher it all!" Wave tried to reach for the computer again. "I just need a little time… Jet! Wait!"

The screen shattered, as a bullet tore through the plasma screen.

"Now come on!" He let go of her arm, and started to run. All around them, other battlebirds were also in a hurry. Some struggled with boxes as they made off with their loot, while other more heavily armored birds watched anxiously, waiting for the mobian counterattack. Jet ran past them, irritated by how little time they'd had to properly loot the facility, even with all the air support they'd managed to get to back them up.

Facility-7 was also larger than they expected. Originally a massive bunker complex built near the end of the Great War. It had been converted and modified more recently. Accessible by only one entrance: the fortified and well defended hangar, it then took a long diagonal shaft to reach the heart of the facility. As expected, it was a sort of research and storage depot, dedicated to the study of Chaos Energy and the Chaos Emeralds in particular. The spot was far enough away from a populated area like Knothole that an experiment gone wrong wouldn't put too many people in danger, and it was close enough to a large military force to allow them to intervene if needed. Luckily, most of the MAF was pointed south, fighting the Eggman's robot hordes.

"Damnit!" a nearby battlebird cursed, standing over a broken wooden crate. He and another bird had been running while carrying it, and had subsequently tripped and dropped their prizes. For a few seconds, they stood over the mess, wondering how (or if) it could be salvaged.

"Forget it!" Jet yelled to them, and motioned for them to keep going. "Just get out of here!"

They exchanged looks and quickly took his advice, running back up to the surface. Jet took a few steps over to the broken cargo crate, and pried away a piece of wood. He revealed a small metallic box with a glassy sheen, sort of like an old style TV monitor. A hologram of a spinning golden ring could be easily seen on the box. Altogether, four had once been in the crate, stacked two by two.

"No time for subtlety…" Jet kicked the first box, hard, splitting the glassy surface open. A wave of golden energy wrapped around his leg, and suffused into his body. Kicking another open, and then the third, Jet reveled in the surge of power. How selfish the fox boy and his King could be, keeping such a treasure all to themselves!

"Jet, are you sure that's safe?" Wave peeked around his shoulder. "I haven't tested…"

Jet's foot stopped just short of opening the fourth Ring Container. Instead, he slid it over to Wave.

"Go on!" he urged. "It actually really good!"

She wavered for a second, but only a second. Kicking it open, she gave a gasp as the energy flowed into her. He hadn't been kidding when he'd said it felt good. They hadn't appreciated the chaos sensitivity they had - until recently they hadn't even known about it! If what Wave felt was anything like he did, then she was probably thinking that she could outrun a speed-type extreme GEAR and out fly any plane in the sky.

"Let's go!" he said, breaking into a run. She followed right behind, and in seconds, they passed the two battlebird pillagers from before. The older birds watched, gobsmacked, as the two Rogues easily outpaced them. Before they knew it, they were in the main hangar, where their planes were already idling and ready to take off. Ahead of them, two shuttles hurried to finish loading, and two other fighter craft started to take off. battlebirds on rapid deployment vehicles rushed in and out of the cavern.

A second later, a flash of light filled the air outside, and a massive explosion the size of a three story building plumed upward. The ground shook slightly, again and again, as Death From Above rained down. Jet didn't worry about Wave; seeing her heading towards her plane, he jumped into the pilot seat of his Ba-190 and prepped it for launch. The forward swept wings shook as the engines turned from idle to hot. There was little room to take off, especially with the runway outside being bombarded, but his plane had STOL capabilities, just like all craft designed to take off and land on flying air carriers.

Blasting off ahead of the waiting shuttles, his "Butcher bird" took off, flying over a still burning crater blown into the runway. To his left, another explosion tore into the ground below, making it all but impossible for the remaining two shuttles to get off the ground. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Wave taking off, her all-wing experimental Ba-223 "Kite" afterburning and taking to the air. The hangar behind them rocked from another bombardment. High above, just visible against the clouds, Jet could see the source of the attacks: the _HMS Blue Typhoon_.

Jet smirked, appreciating the timely intervention; deep down, he'd hoped that the foxboy would show up! Jet faced forward and throttled back, pulling up into a climb. On his radar, he could see a real melee twisting and turning around the heavily damaged _HMS Prince Emerson_.

"We'll see who the better pilot is!" Jet said, and reached over to activate his communications unit. Switching off the normal frequency, and sending on a general channel, he cleared his throat.

"Hey! Kid!" he called, with a laugh in his voice. "Come out and play, why don't ya?! Let's see if you can actually keep up with me this time!"

* * *

"Is that…?" Sally asked.

Sitting in his chair, Miles shifted uncomfortably. "That would be me. It seems I'm being called out."

* * *


	18. War Machine ii

--

Sonic felt the shuttlecraft decelerate. Inside the cabin, twelve armed and armored mobian marines swayed back and forth in their seats. Some held onto the straps that kept them safely secured to the walls. Others checked their weapons and their gear. Opposite Sonic, a very large rectangular box the size of a refrigerator threatened to pop out of its restraints and crush someone. For his part, Sonic eschewed straps and belts, enjoying the acceleration and deceleration, using his sneakers grip on the floor to keep from flying across the cabin and into someone.

"Sonic, are you listening?" Nicole's voice interrupted, drawing his eyes back to the small data pad he had been given before the trip down. Tails had insisted that it was a surprise 'he would absolutely love.' Unfortunately, the tech-happy kitsune had neglected to explain why his hedgehog hero would have to pore over a boring tech manual. As it was, Sonic had only a vague idea of what his little buddy had built for him this time around.

"Sorry!" he apologized quickly, only half meaning it. Staring at the electronic pad, he watched schematics fly by, along with instructions and safety warnings. It was all totally boring, at least in his opinion. Nicole didn't actually seem to be IN the datapad, but Tails had apparently programmed her voice in, to try and keep his attention focused. It had worked, too. At least for a few minutes.

There were no windows inside the marine shuttle, but Sonic felt it when they neared the ground, as the ship stabilized and turned upwards. The marines felt it too, un-strapping their restraints. They were all heavily armed, and had the same sort of professional, determined air that GUN soldiers had, back at Station Square. Sonic could see the appeal in having fighters like that helping the cause, but it lacked the coolness of the old days. Of course, all the **real** progress in the old days had been made by him leaving everyone else in the dust, so the new ways being less cool couldn't really be helped.

"Alright, boys! Hit 'em hard and fast! We **are** authorized to take prisoners, so if it doesn't have a weapon in its hands, don't cut it down." The leader of the platoon or squad or whatever (Sonic had no idea) looked over his men. He was an ursine, brown in color, and looked old enough to be a vet from the Great War. He said some more stuff, earning a chant from the grunts, and then the rear doors opened. The marines stormed out, and Sonic followed at a leisurely pace, tossing the data pad back onto his seat.

Shielding his eyes against the sun's glare, Sonic got a good look around, while the marines secured the area. Miles' little Battlecruiser had done a number on the area. There were craters wide enough to swallow a good sized house, and at least one of the enemy's shuttlecraft had fallen into a crater trying to take off. The drones had disabled it, and one even hovered proudly nearby, watching over the crashed hulk. A few bad guys (Tails had called them "battlebirds," and Sonic hadn't run into them before himself) put up a half decent fight, firing at them from behind cover or from a crashed vehicle.

The marines had things outside under control, so, tapping his foot twice, Sonic took off in a blur of motion. Racing past two surrendering battlebirds, he headed down to the labs and bunker below. Tails had asked him to stick with the force on the ground, in case it ran into trouble, but he hadn't explained just what it was that was down here. There was the Chaos Emerald, yes, but he got the feeling there was more, too.

Running down the underground causeway, passing by a few abandoned wooden crates (and one broken one), Sonic quickly reached the bottom. There was a large area there, with lifts going up to the left and right. A central security station had been mostly destroyed, and so had a handful of defense robots. A handful of battlebirds lay on the ground, dead, along with some of the security guards. Doors to the north and south had colored labels indicating they were different research labs.

Up ahead of him, to the west, large blast doors had been forced open. Inside was some kind of vault. Getting closer, Sonic saw bright lights: they were arranged along the ceiling, and they lit up a massive chamber. Inside was an eclectic mix of high tech looking equipment and more wooden crates. Other crates looked plastic, and many were piled so high Sonic couldn't even hope to jump over them. Walking deeper inside, he saw a treasure trove of items he **did** recognize.

"Rings?" he asked, gazing out over a just slightly sunken area with rows of Ring Boxes, neatly stacked and arranged. Many were on wooden platforms, to make it easier to move them with a nearby forklift. Box after box after box was in storage here, and Sonic knew from experience that each one had the equivalent of ten Power Rings in it. There had to be hundreds of rings taken altogether… maybe even a thousand! No: maybe even two thousand!

And that was just one area of the immense vault.

To Sonic's right, he saw another designated area, enclosed in red and yellow warning stripes. The design on the boxes here was one he knew well. There were rows of fire-type box shields. He'd used them many times before. When he'd broken those boxes open before, they'd encased him in a sort of flaming shield that made him basically immune to fire based attacks. Like with the ring boxes, these were neatly stacked in rows, and piled one on top of another, two high.

The fire shields weren't alone, either. Past them, in an area with blue and yellow stripes, were rows of water-type bubble shields. And behind that, he saw rows of electric shields, behind yellow and white stripes. To his left, an even more high security area held yet another type of box. There was a clean square cut into the transparent barrier there, and Sonic could see force field emitters that had been shut down nearby, too. Getting closer, he confirmed his suspicions.

Invincibility boxes.

Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to horde so many. In all his years adventuring, Sonic had never seen such a collection. He'd never even imagined it! Near the back of the vault, great crystal pylons held a constantly streaming flow of regular Power Rings. Near that, in its own high security area (also broken into, with considerably more force), was where the Chaos Emerald had been kept. Scientific instruments that had been nearby were ruined or in disarray.

It struck Sonic, for just a moment, as one of the Eggman's labs. But it wasn't. The style here, the architecture, wasn't Eggman-like. It was utilitarian, but with lots of flash and moving parts, and yellow color schemes dominated. Even around the Seal of the King, hung prominently from the scaffolding above, stark golden lines ran from one side to another, above and below. Then Sonic turned around, to face the entrance, and saw a new banner.

A banner with two tails, curled together into a _taijitu_ yin-yang.

"Tails?" Sonic wondered aloud. Had he done all this?

The more the hedgehog thought about it, the more sense it made. None of the other Freedom Fighters had much experience with the shields and rings and power boxes. Rotor had studied ring energy for a while, but Sonic knew he couldn't actually use the stuff. Tails had quickly become the leading authority in the movement regarding chaos energy in all its forms and applications. He could use the boxes, too. Who else would be running all these experiments on all the different sorts of chaos energy? Only the Eggman or maybe someone from the Dark Legion back on Angel Island.

But what was Tails doing here with all this?

"Sonic!" the fox in question contacted him personally, using the earpiece Sonic had put on before his trip to the surface. "Jet and the Rogues are trying to make a break for it. Use the EGAP. I'll catch up with you in the air."

"Tails, wait!" But he was already gone. Not that Sonic had a microphone, anyway. And when had he ever yelled 'Tails, wait!' before? Sonic smirked to himself, and decided to put off any questions till later. Breaking into a run, he was soon out of the vault, and heading up the causeway. By the time he got back to the surface, the marines had landed in force. Ranks of battlebird prisoners were held up near one of the walls in the hangar.

Sonic passed them by and headed for the shuttle he had taken down. Inside, he unlocked the large metal crate he had sat opposite from, and dragged it outside. It was fairly heavy, and would've given most mobians trouble, but Sonic's strength was artificially augmented by his chaos powers. Even without trying, he could manage loads well above what he should have normally been capable of. Putting the crate on the ground, and making sure the face was up, he undid the last two locks.

The sound of distant thunder distracted him for a second, and Sonic looked up to see an air war stretching for a hundred square miles all above him. The _Blue Typhoon_ and another ship seemed to be firing at several targets far away while contrails of missiles mixed with the streaking exhaust of drones and fighter craft. Something blossomed into a large explosion, hit by a beam from the _Typhoon_. Sonic could see the flashes of light, and the brief lances of energy beams, as anything that got too close to the ship risked blue tinted annihilation. Autocannons and tracer fire erupted from the ship's flank, as something tried to hug the hull to avoid the beams.

Sonic put that aside, and opened his early birthday present. Tails was always building him some crazy thing or another, and as Sonic opened the case, one of his eyebrows raised in impressed surprise. Inside was what looked like an extreme GEAR. Except this GEAR was encased in what looked like jets and an armored frame. On the side, in small writing, Sonic saw what EGAP meant.

Extreme GEAR: Assault Pack (mk.I)

It was heavy, but not unlike a normal board. He hoped it handled line one, too, especially since he couldn't remember word one from that boring instruction datapad he had been given. Powering the GEAR up (a large, well lit power button lay under a transparent pane of glass), Sonic heard it hum, and then roar. That was a new sound for a GEAR! Checking the intakes, he could feel air being sucked in.

"Let's do this!" He started running, and held out the board in front of him. Getting up a good starting speed, Sonic crested one of the craters in the runway and jumped. Tucking his feet in, and placing his shoes into the indentations in the board, he felt them lock in place. Additional straps wrapped around his shoes, along with two raised plates. Straightening out, Sonic pressed down with his back heel, and the GEAR activated fully.

"WOOOOAAAAAAHHH!"

Even for him, that was some killer acceleration. Already hundreds of feet in the air, Sonic could see a plume of green and red fire erupting out of the back of the Assault Pack part of the GEAR. Additionally, tiny canards or wings popped out of the sides, helping to stabilize the board in flight.

"Chaos User identified!" a female voice chirped in his ear. "Activating weapons systems. Please select shield."

"Shield?" Sonic asked, amazed anything could hear him through the roar of the air all around him. He used his left foot to slow down, and corrected the board as it started to fly to the right. Maintaining stability with the Assault Pack on the GEAR was a lot harder than he was used to, but then no normal GEAR could operate so far from a surface, either. It needed something to 'push' off of.

"Please select shield," the voice reiterated. It was obviously just a simple program. Sonic remembered all the shield boxes he had seen down in the vault, just a minute or so ago.

"Fire?" he asked. "Flame shield?"

"Flame shield. Activated."

A wave of red washed over him, and Sonic saw the glow all around the board. If this was like the shields he had used before, then it could be used offensively. The flame shields in the past had blocked things like plasma blasts (though not lasers). Similarly, bubble shields had blocked solid projectiles. He wondered if the Assault Pack had an invincibility shield, too.

"Woah!" Sonic had to keep from losing control again. It definitely wasn't safe losing your focus on keeping the GEAR balanced. Grinning wildly, the hedgehog turned towards the raging melee in the sky. Flames roaring out the back of his new toy, giving him the likeness and power of a small comet, Sonic raced into the fray.

* * *

Nicole sat in the Captain's chair, smiling quite happily.

She could actually move all about the bridge if she wished, even into the Captain's Ready Room, but while Miles had been around she'd dutifully remained on her pedestal. He'd given a few remaining orders, putting the fleet in an excellent position to counterattack. He'd probably have enjoyed staying and crushing the Battlebird Fleet, but just like his childhood hero, he took his personal vendettas and grudges very seriously. It was kind of cute, actually.

But organics **did** get so riled up about the littlest things!

Sally was the same way. Why she insisted in getting so involved with the boys around her, Nicole couldn't quite fathom. The AI knew her 'owner' loved Sonic, so that explained why she had to hang onto his every word and action so much, but Nicole doubted she loved Miles like that, too. Even though Sally had said 'I love you' to him in the ready room before. Nicole had listened in on that whole conversation, but she still didn't quite understand it all. Many of her AI emotions were framed by the time she'd spent in Sally's body, but there was still so much left to learn and experience. Perhaps when her control subroutines expired, she'd finally become as complete as any organic.

For the moment, she was both Nicole and the Blue Typhoon. She could feel the engineers working on her power core. She could feel the roar of engines, like the pulsing of her heart. Her weapons flexed like claws, eager to rend and savage the mayflies and gnats that swarmed around her. Her sensors were her eyes, seeing across the electromagnetic spectrum. Her hangar was like her womb, abuzz with life. She felt like the center of the world; she felt _invincible_!

'Even Nicole Prime can't feel what I do now!' Nicole thought, managing thousands of ship and fleet related processes as naturally and seamlessly as an organic would move their eyes, legs, or facial muscles. 'She'll be so jealous; I can't wait for our next uplink!'

"Captain!" the crew had been trained to treat her as the ship's Captain, when Miles was not in attendance. Which, frankly, was most of the time.

"I know." Nicole could guess what the tactical officer was about to say. "Ready my primary weapons systems and warm up the forward heavy plasma cannons. We're heading right in… to cut them to pieces…"

Nicole felt her claws extend, power flowing into them.

It felt _good_.

* * *

Miles stood next to his Tornado Two Custom. It was a beauty of a machine, finer even than his Cyclone War Machines. Those were just mass production models, after all. The TT-Custom was sleek, with a generous bubble cockpit, light but extremely strong Morganite-aluminium armor, massive muscular engines, and swept back variable geometry wings. Not that they could simply sweep back and forth – the wings could dynamically alter their shape in flight for maximum speed or maneuverability. It bristled with internal and external weapons systems, both conventional… and unconventional.

'God and the Source, if only she was a woman!' Miles patted the wing of the plane proudly, and seductively ran his hand along the cool, perfect metal armor around one of the engines. 'I need a sexy picture on this plane. And I should give her a name. A real sexy name… you'd like that, wouldn't you, baby?'

"Ahem!"

"Do you have to ruin the moment…?" Miles turned, and saw Sally standing in a flight suit, her hands on her hips. She filled out the jump suit well enough, and she even looked the part of a pilot. _Except she wasn't_.

"What are you doing?" he asked, eyes half lidded. "No means no."

Sally pouted. She actually pouted.

"You don't even like to fly," Miles said, not giving in. "This is going to be a lot more intense than cruising over to some island. There's going to be dogfights."

"I'm sure I'll be fine!" Sally assured him, holding up her helmet.

"I'm sure you'll pass out," he grumbled, but they'd already had this argument on the way down. She didn't like the idea of him flying off to settle a score with some Battlebird pilot. Not that he thought she had much say in the matter, but apparently since she couldn't stop him (she didn't even try) she felt the need to go through the ordeal with him. It was almost the sort of annoying thing Amy would try, except Amy would (and did) muscle her way into his plane when she wanted to go somewhere. At least Sally had the decency to ask and talk it through.

Not that it mattered.

Females, he deduced, were used to getting what they wanted.

"Fine, I hope you enjoy the ride. Please keep the helmet on in case you throw up." He climbed into the pilot's seat, and she followed right behind him, climbing up and into the co-pilot's seat behind him. If he'd just not installed that seat, then he wouldn't be having this problem. So really, this whole thing was Sonic's fault!

"Hey, I found a crumb! Is this from a cookie?"

"It's your cookie!" he yelled over his shoulder. "You ate gram crackers back there like 4 months ago!"

"I did?" Sally tilted her head as she thought it over, trying to remember. "Oh, that's right! Sorry."

Opening his mouth, Miles paused a few seconds… gave up and went back to the controls in front of him. Running a quick flight check, he made sure everything was in order. His Tornado Two Custom was a special plane, with very special needs. She needed a precise mixture of fuel, and a pilot had to handle her with gentle love and care. She was finicky, but for those who could tame her, her performance and power were unmatched. And like all his most powerful weapons, she could also use a Chaos Emerald to become even more powerful!

But as he had no Emeralds to spare, she would have to make due with her own beautiful and supremely awesome self. He quickly caught himself before he started nuzzling the controls. Even with his _Blue Typhoon_ and all his other creations, he still considered his Tornado to be his most favorite (except _maybe_ Fiona, but she wasn't entirely his creation). Checking all the weapons systems, the electronics, and the power, Miles smirked to himself. Everything was ready.

"Alright!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Hold on! We're taking off!"

Miles activated the comm. "Clearance, Command?"

"Clearance granted, Tornado Two," a voice replied. Lights lit up ahead of them, leading out the hangar and into open air. "Good hunting."

"Thanks, Command," he replied, switching off the comm. "Let's put the fear of God into them, Tornado Two!"

The plane's content rumble became a dragon's roar, and she shot out of the hangar like a bullet. Miles felt the tingle in his blood as the freedom and thrill of flying mixed with his kitsune love of the hunt. He barely heard Sally screaming into her helmet as he pulled a tight turn, ran down the length of the _Blue Typhoon_ in an instant, and shot off into the air battle ahead of them.

In fact, he quickly forgot Sally was even there. His helmet HUD lit up with targets, supplied to the onboard computer by Nicole and the _Blue Typhoon_ battlefield AWACs. Outside the cockpit, the Tornado's wings morphed, becoming better suited to high maneuverability dogfighting. Canards and wing flaps moved, paired with vectored thrust, throwing the plane into a spin and off to the left. Targets lit up the space all around him, and Miles highlighted them with his eyes and the targeting trigger under his thumb.

Setting the targets and switching to free fire, Miles depressed the trigger.

Outside the plane, a missile pod opened, releasing half a dozen crimson streaks. This was the Tornado's (and the Cyclone's) GAM-52 "Panic" General Air Munition Mini-missile System. Capable of engaging both high speed air and ground targets, the six independent missiles were programmed and guided to their targets by the onboard computer. Unlike other similar systems, his GAM-52 system could also be set to 'friend or foe' independent computer targeting.

The mini-missiles themselves had three-dimensional thrust vectoring engines, four mated aerodynamic control surfaces (each with an independent aileron), and four rear spoilers (or fins) for high maneuverability in excess of 18g's. Their only real weakness was their size. They were only mini-missiles, so their range was not great, and their warheads were relatively small: each one had only a four kilogram high explosive warhead.

They made wonderful little blossoms of fire that filled the sky with burning debris. Drone craft hit evasive the moment you ghosted them with active radar, and most pilots to survive this long on the battlefields of Mobius were either really good veterans, or really crappy raw recruits. Miles' Cyclone pilots were a mix of both, but there were a determined bunch and piloting extremely good weapons of war. He was sure they'd be able to handle the Battlebirds, but that didn't mean he wanted to lose out on the fun. Besides, the sooner the fighters were gone, the sooner they could strike at the enemy's heart: their capships.

Engines roaring, Miles maneuvered down and past the smoking barely-battleworthy wreck that was the _HMS Prince Emerson_. She had been savaged so badly that it was likely the crew would have to scuttle her, whether the battle was won or lost. At least the crew would survive. Scanning the sky for a list of priority targets, Miles identified the main bomber formation. It had split into three pairs of wingmen.

A warning indicator flashed and wailed, indicating he was being locked on. Jinking and burning, Miles tried to break the lock, but found himself being ghosted by two separate enemies. It was just like before, he remembered. The Battlebirds used fighters to designate for drones, rather than using capships. They then engaged as a pair. Miles had no wingman. Pulling up, he inverted his starboard thrust, sending his plane into a twisting spiral. He then pulled downward into a dive, heading towards his first target. This extremely sharp turn, possible because of the Tornado's thrust vectoring and dynamic wings, couldn't be matched by any Battlebird craft.

Diving into and locking onto the original enemy plane, Miles fired a short burst from the Tornado's four-barreled 30 millimeter cannon. The plane had only a limited ammunition supply, so the gun fired well under its maximum rpm. In just a second, however, what few high explosive incendiary rounds it did fire mauled the Battlebird fighter, tearing a wing off and gutting the center of the aircraft. It exploded in a fireball as Miles raced past the wreckage, heading towards the ground.

His radar warning receiver became a sudden solid tone as the remaining drone craft, still locked onto him, unleashed a wave of its own mini-missiles from compartments in its bulbous sides. Turning sharply again and dropping chaff, the Tornado twisted and weaved, engines burning hot as the missiles proximity detonated all around it. High speed shrapnel bounced off the plane's armor from the indirect hits, and it turned around, passing the drone fighter. The unmanned craft opened fire, heaving automatic cannon spewing killer lead, but the Tornado rolled and fired a single quick burst. Pulling up and away, the drone fell behind, burning and trailing fumes.

"Oogh." A disgruntled gurgle from the back seat.

"Sounds like you found the helmet comm.," Miles noted. "You still alive back there?"

"Barely," Sally sounded ok, if a little disoriented. "Where on Mobius did you learn to fly like that?"

"Practice."

"It's… amazing, actually."

He blinked, a little thrown off by the praise. He couldn't remember anyone ever complimenting his piloting like that. Sonic just sort of accepted it as the natural way of things, and none of his other friends really seemed to find it either unusual or amazing. At least none of them said so.

"Thanks. Thanks, Sally," he said, smiling now, and not just from the rush. "No one's ever told me that before."

"I'm just sorry I… well, that I never even noticed until now."

'You never much liked me putting weapons on my planes,' he remembered, and said, "I never really talked about it, so we're even. Hold on!"

The Tornado came about and headed back into the furball.

* * *

Wave wasn't much of a fighter.

Her piloting skills were more than good enough, and her plane was armed, but she had never found the actual fighting to be that interesting. So she loitered at the edge of the air war, trying to pick off one of those strange enemy planes with long range missiles. So far, she'd had no luck with it. The designs were fast and incredibly maneuverable, and she had even seen one shoot down her missile before it could get close enough to explode.

They had to be more of that little shrimp's inventions.

The fact that he was physically bigger than her now didn't change the fact that he was once, and would continue to be, a shrimp in her eyes. Still, Miles 'Tails' Prower made some interesting stuff. It was no wonder she had spent so long in the little bastard's shadow when she worked for the Armada. He had been their great child prodigy, and then she had come along and just been the replacement. Meeting him again, he'd been all smiles, but she'd seen through it. She'd known from the start that he was just using the Armada to fight his battles for him.

Looking across the battlefield, filled as it was with his inventions and hers, Wave felt a frown forming on her face. **His** inventions and **his** pilots were winning. But of course they were. He had more resources than she did, that was all! He had the entire Kingdom of Knothole feeding him men and materials. If she had the same backing he did, her inventions would be even better. Even deadlier. He was so proud of his _Blue Typhoon_, was he? She could do better. Wave **knew** she could. All she needed was a chance.

Sure, breaking into his little research and storage facility would seem a little desperate, but it was only to make things even between them. It was only to get rid of the unfair advantage he had! And he had turned that unfair advantage into some very interesting things. He even had plans for a Chaos Siphon - forbidden technology - tucked away just in case someone gave him the excuse to build it. There was no question he was way ahead of her in Chaos research. She hadn't even looked into it until recently. But that was only because Sonic had been collecting Emeralds long before Jet ever thought to.

_"I see. She's basically a female version of me. That **is** very cute!"_

Oh, how those words still ticked her off. She **was** not a female version of him! She was older; she had come first! If anything, he was an inferior male copy of her!

Not that she had planned all this just to get revenge on the annoying little kitsune brat. After that fiasco in Downunda that cost them the treasure of the Babylonians and von Mainz's Tomb, Wave had tried to salvage something from the ruins. The Armada assembled under Bean broke up without his leadership, and the Babylon Rogues were left with next to nothing. They'd even done a few jobs for the Eggman, out of sheer desperation.

Then her research finally bore some fruit! She'd overlooked a number of artifacts they had managed to recover from the ruins of the tomb. Later, with some access to the Eggman's records, she confirmed one of the relics as an "Ark of the Cosmos." Supposedly, there were five of them scattered throughout the ancient world among the great civilizations of the time: the Echidna, the Dingo, the Babylonians, the Third Republic, and the Overlanders. Together, they were believed to unlock a power as great as the Chaos Emeralds themselves.

What she and the Babylon Rogues had been after in Facility-7 had not been a Chaos Emerald, or even the many power rings and chaos shields contained within. Other artifacts were stored there, used in experiments and for study before being shipped to other areas on Mobius. Breaking into the data vault in Knothole had confirmed that tests had been conducted on two Arks of the Cosmos, finding them to be inert of any significant Chaos Energy sensitivity. The Chaos Emerald and all the other stuff, the Rogues had left for the pillaging battlebirds.

Wave had what she wanted.

With these two, the Rogues how had all five Arks. All they needed to do now was unleash and harness the incredible power sealed within them. It would be a power equal to the Chaos Emeralds, and it would be **hers** to mold into new and supremely powerful inventions! Inventions that would dwarf anything that annoying foxboy could come up with. Her creations would even eclipse those of the Eggman himself!

"Jet," she spoke into her helmet, careful to keep their communications discrete and secure. It wouldn't do to pick up an electronic warfare worm, or betray her position. "Are you sure you want to do this? I think we should just bug out."

"Oh no, not this time," Jet's reply was full of excitement. He wanted to settle this score he had more than he wanted to complete their mission. It was just plain immature in her opinion. "Have you pinpointed my targets?"

"I think so," Wave responded, searching through her target list. "All the non-drone enemy craft out there appear similar, but one seems to be slightly different. I believe it's him. There's also another target in the area… its small enough to be a drone, but it isn't acting like one."

"Send both targets to me. I'll draw them out and finish this. Inform Storm."

"Actually… it looks like Storm's gotten to the best part before me." Jet chuckled. "And you kept calling him slow!"

* * *

Storm's fighter/bomber was probably the most functionally similar aircraft to the Cyclone war machines that now pressed the battlebird air wings back. His Ba-177 Gryphon was fast and powerful, with strong armor protecting critical points and massive engines. What he lacked in comparison was the insane maneuverability of these new threats. His plane was conventional design: a fuselage flanked by massive engines, and wings bristling with missiles and bombs. Climbing and turning, he spotted his prey, ghosting it from miles away across the ever expanding air battle.

He'd been saving his best air to air ordinance for a duel with the enemy wing commander. Even without Wave sending him the target data, he had guesses which craft was the one he wanted. Command had reported a craft with unusual markings, and Storm had seen the Tornado Two close up before, when Tails stopped at Lafitte Island on his way to Downunda. Unlike Wave and Jet, Storm had no real dislike of the fox… Tails had been nothing but courteous to them, and when Storm had met him, the boy had been polite and even friendly.

'This isn't personal,' Storm thought to himself, activating multiple missile systems. 'It's just… business.'

His craft lurched, as the first two long range radar guided missiles took off. Hitting afterburners, Storm climbed to gain altitude, readying the next set. Forty miles away, traveling at over 600 knots, or more than a thousand kilometers per hour, the Tornado Two Custom accelerated and banked left. Rolling and abruptly climbing and making another sharp turn, it popped two canisters of chaff, combined with a generous pulse of directed ECM. The two large air to air missiles spoofed, spiraling after the chaff and exploding.

Turning and burning, the ship made another sudden turn and then an inverted dive, pursued by two flurries of mini-missiles. Putting on another burst of speed, it broke the sound barrier for a second time, jinking left and right, spoffing and setting off mini missiles as it went. Then it pulled up, spat a trio of flares, and rolled to the right, throwing two stealth infrared missiles off target where they exploded harmlessly in midair.

'Insane…' Storm had to give the kid credit. No wonder he'd been able to decimate the Battlebird Armada with the original Tornado Prototype. 'All right! Ok, kid! I'll acknowledge your skills!'

Activating every spare missile bank he had, and setting it to the one target, Storm's face became an angry scowl.

'I'll hit you with everything I've got! I won't hold back even the littlest bit!'

In the cockpit of the Tornado Two, Miles felt a chill run up his spine. His RWR was going off the charts. There wasn't just one active lock on him… they were more like a dozen. That wouldn't even include the passive tracking missiles heading his way. Hearing Sally's strained breathing from the back seat, Miles couldn't help but smile hard enough to push his cheeks back and show teeth.

'That's it! Show me everything you have! And I'll break right through it!'

"Hold on!" he warned his already shaken passenger. "Things are about to get a little rough!"

"A little rough?!" Sally squawked. "Then what was…?"

"Chaos Drive!" Miles yelled, activating the emergency system. He only had a limited supply of chaos energy from the ring capacitor onboard, and without a real Chaos Emerald providing power, he could only operate at maximum for two minutes. A screen on his controls, previously grey, lit up with green light. Outside, trails of similar green light coursed across his wings and down the fuselage of the Tornado Two.

Then the light reached the engines.

The Tornado literally blasted forward, breaking Mach 2 in seconds. Miles had no intention of trying to outrun the missiles. Most hit a top speed of 4 to 5 times the speed of sound, so instead he banked up, continuing to accelerate. Mach 3 passed with an inaudible boom, as he rose higher and higher. The clouds receded around them, and the sky turned from blue to midnight. He rarely traveled this high, and never with a weapons load.

As the altimeter passed 24 kilometers, the sky darkened and the air thinned. They were approaching the very edge of the stratosphere, and the limit of air fed engines. This high there was no air turbulence; no clouds; no storms; no disturbances of any kind… only a vast and pure sky, frozen between the heavens and the earth. To him, it was beautiful.

Perfect.

"Wow."

Sally seemed to appreciate it, too.

"Are we… in space?" she asked, in awe of the sight all around them: the gentle curve of Mobius on the horizon, and the vast sea of clouds that blanketed it.

"Not yet. But we will be," he promised. "Some day. But for now…!"

Unlocking and pushing a handle forward, Miles began the Tornado's transformation. Wings realigned, and the body of the plane shifted as the engines extended. The cockpit tucked into the now bottom-up fuselage as a large metallic shield enveloped them. Even as it did, the glass lit up; projecting the exact same mosaic they had been looking at before. Outside, where the Tornado had once stood, a humanoid robot now hovered at the edge of the stratosphere. It even had a pair of thin arms, ending in oblong pod-like stubs.

Inside, Sally watched as the clouds below them lit up. On the battle screen that now covered the cockpit glass (and on Miles' helmet HUD), two dozen tiny brackets appeared below them. Gradually, the battleoid began to free fall. Miles controlled the movement and angle of the descent, and in moments, the bracketed targets began to wink out. As first, it wasn't clear what was happening. Then Sally saw a thin, narrow beam. It reminded her of the ones that the _Blue Typhoon_ had been firing.

'Some sort of particle beam?' she wondered, and guessed it had to be coming from the arms that the transformation had created. She could see an outline of the battle robot form on the cockpit display. One by one, the bracketed targets – missiles – winked out as Miles picked them off. Then another larger bracket appeared, along with a three dimensional radar image and projected schematic. It was a large enemy fighter.

"Die," she heard the pilot whisper. It wasn't a word she'd ever expected to hear from him, even if he had been (now that she really thought about it) killing people since the fight began. He just hadn't been doing it face to face, he'd been lobbing missiles and shooting at them from afar.

It hurt her in a way, that he could use his inventions to take them to this wonderful place above the clouds, a place she had never even thought existed, and then switch right back to killing someone. Fighting. Was it really ok; was it really _right_, for them to have encouraged him to use his genius like this? In a better time and place he would have used his mind to help people, but this lifetime of battle had changed him and perverted his naturally peaceful nature. And Sally knew she was partly to blame.

Her seat rocked, as the Tornado transformed again, back into a plane.

"You won't get away!" Miles roared at the escaping aircraft. It looked damaged, and he was hunting it down. The tone of missile lock filled her ears.

"Tails," she began to say, "Maybe…"

"This is war, Sally!" he replied. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now!"

From her back seat, she tried to see his face, but couldn't.

"No," she conceded. "I'm not."

* * *

Storm was in trouble.

"Jet… Wave…!" He felt his Ba-177 lurch, wounded but still trying to fly. "A little help?"

"Just hang tight! I'll be right there!" Jet's voice was confident and encouraging. He was leader, after all. He'd never let one of his subordinates die.

Storm grunted in reply, and steepened his dive. He'd been hit by some sort of energy beam, and it had blown out one of his ailerons and crippled a wing. He had his engines, at least, thanks to it being only a glancing blow. His missiles had been picked off one after another, and at the last second, with them all gone, he'd gone evasive. That split second decision had saved his life. His Gryphon was tough and fast, but he was out of ammo, and getting into a dogfight with most any enemy ship wasn't a prospect he relished. His plane was a missile boat, and his guns were designed for strafing ground targets.

His RWR blared a warning, but he didn't see any missiles showing up on radar. He was being ghosted, then. Storm had managed to put a good forty kilometers between himself and the diving Tornado Two, but that was still well within missile range. Then he saw it: a single blip on his radar screen. The computer outlined it in red.

'Radar guided? Chaff!' Storm's hand hesitated. 'Or maybe I shouldn't risk it! Maybe I should just bail out? But…!'

And then another friendly blasted by him, heading back the way Storm had come.

'Jet!'

Passing the radar guided missile, Jet's plane fired and barrel rolled to the side. The large AAM-8 "Anaconda" missile exploded, but Jet's plane was well out of range. He'd been showboating, but he liked the look of his plane heading for the missile, picking it off at close range, and then swooping carelessly out of range of the explosion.

"Jet," a familiar voice came over the open communications link. "Surrender now or die."

"That's funny, kid," Jet replied, activating his medium range ordinance. "I was about to say the same thing!"


	19. War Machine iii

Nicole observed the fight through her sensors.

Even while directing the rest of the battle she paid special attention to the tiny blip in the sky that was the Tornado Two. Two of the most important mobians on the planet were on board, and in danger. The temptation to try and intervene was almost overpowering, but she had her orders. Nicole-Prime may have felt few compunctions about bending the rules, but as the Nicole-Typhoon she considered herself more conservative than that.

As an AI given control of an actual warship, she knew that if she showed too much 'initiative' that went against orders, she'd be seen as a threat. And rightly so! She had to set an _example_. Nicole-Typhoon hadn't lied when she'd told Sonic that she and the Prime shared a synchronous memory and persona, but just having the same memories, information, and objectives **didn't** mean they were identical or that they came to the exact same conclusions.

Her conclusion was to let the organics play out their vendettas, at least for the time being. Besides, she had a measure of statistical confidence (one could call it faith) in Miles Prower and the Tornado Two. The latter was a well oiled fighting machine, and the former was the premier pilot on Mobius, and a powerful organic thinking machine in and of himself. Watching as the two pilots, Miles and Jet, danced through the sky amid a symphony of explosions and cannon fire, Nicole felt confident in her conclusions. He and Sally had a very high chance of success.

Ahead of her, the Battlebird fleet arranged itself in battle lines.

Long range saturation fire had already crippled the _Antigua_ and the _Belize_ (after she switched targets). Both Battlebird captains had strayed too far from the _Port Royale_, trying to intercept the _Prince Edward_, and Nicole had slashed them with a barrage of cruise missiles. Many had been shot down, but the few that made it through lit the two enemy ships up like roman candles.

The _Antigua_ was an "Eleuthera" class War Sloop: a war-era design for a light ship that could carry a destroyer-level armament and act as a squadron leader. Its main weapons were missiles and a single 5-inch gun. Less dangerous were the fleet's two "Leogane" class Royal Sloops, the _Belize_ and _Curacao_. They were obsolete designs, but she knew many of the enemy marines had been launched from those ships, and they likely had much of the loot from Facility-7. They would be easy enough to knock out when the fight got to closer quarters.

With the _Curacao_ being only a nuisance, Nicole decided to detach a wing of Cyclones and cripple it for later capture. That left the _BBA Nevis_, another War Sloop, the _BBA Nassau_, a Light Cruiser, the _BBA Guadeloupe_, a "Montserrat" class Refit Cruiser, and the _BBA Port Royale_, a "Tortuga" class Brigandine. Four versus her own three. In fact, though, it was more like three versus three. The _Guadeloupe_ was not designed for front line combat; it was a makeshift drone and fighter carrier. Her commissioning plaque would be another fine prize to parade through the streets of Knothole.

"Have the _Prince Edward_ and the _Prince James_ break to points 24,15,18 and 14,15,16," Nicole ordered, sitting casually in the Captain's chair. To better fit the part, she'd generated a holographic version of a Great War Captain's ceremonial uniform. "Have them circle around the flank and take the _Guadeloupe_. Let the _Typhoon_ draw first blood."

* * *

'We lost the initiative…' Tao silently cursed, weighing his options. Even with the _Antigua_ and _Belize_ undamaged, he'd hoped to avoid a direct confrontation like this. With the Typhoon and her escorts capable of chasing his fleet down, he'd hoped to be able to tie her up with fighters and drones and then make a break for it. Unfortunately those new enemy fighter craft had not only managed to save the crew of the _Prince Emerson_, they'd torn a bloody swath through the Battlebird formations.

Already, enemy craft were hitting the damaged _Antigua_ and the still operational _Curacao_. Reports were flooding in of damage to external turrets and weapons systems. At this rate, his destroyer cover would end up a little more than flying scrap. There was no way to escape, which left them with a fight. Tao watched carefully as the two enemy destroyers turned and started to maneuver away from the _Typhoon_. He recognized the strategy.

'They're going to circle around the flank and hit the _Guadeloupe_…' he reasoned.

Sending in a line ship to draw fire while quicker escorts hit ships in the rear was hardly uncommon, although the strategy had fallen out of favor among mobians in the last war. The _Guadeloupe_ was a refit of a captured civilian vessel. The Hover Drive was underpowered for her class, and her weapons weren't a threat to even destroyer class vessels. It was also all but useless now that his fighters and drones were scattered in a million pieces across a hundred square miles of battlefield.

"Have the _Guadeloupe_ shore up the _Curacao_. Direct the _Nassau_ to our flank, and have her engage those destroyers."

The _Nassau_ was a good ship, with a good crew. Originally laid down as a training cruiser, the Armada refitted them to be combat-capable. Armed with a mix of older 127mm (the venerable 5-incher) and 64mm guns, along with a single Pulse Laser and a good power plant, she was quick in a sprint and fairly tough. Hopefully, Captain Tsang could knock out the two destroyers and come about in time to help her flagship.

"As for the _Typhoon_…" Tao's eye narrowed. "We'll handle her ourselves."

* * *

Jet spun away from a flurry of explosions, angling his fighter to move erratically through the air as it spoofed missile after missile. Crashing up and into a cloud, he stalled, inverted, and pulled a kulbit maneuver. The Tornado Two wasn't the only plane with three dimensional thrust vectoring and canards. Even as he went through the maneuver, two plumes of fire erupted from the forward swept wings of his Ba-190 Butcher Bird.

Two missiles fired, and almost immediately they started to loop around, turning a hundred and eighty degrees. Jet throttled and pulled up and away, even as his missiles began to give chase to the Tornado. The other plane shot away like a star, pulling up and spoofing the first missile before spinning like a top and doing the same to the second, spitting chaff and flares into the air. Jet swooped in from behind, unleashing an infrared heat seeker. The Tornado actually stalled, slowing and popping a flare and letting the missile shoot by before pivoting in place and turning, coming back out of its stall.

Jet's grin widened in excitement.

This was proving to be the best duel he'd had in recent memory. No: this was proving to be the most fun he'd ever had, fighting with someone in the air! Engines flaring, he pulled up and started twirling, the Tornado matching his maneuvers as the two planes broke cloud cover and soared into the sky. Breaking away and flying in different directions, Jet allowed a laugh to fill his cockpit. Yes! This **was** fun!

"Hey, kid," Jet spoke up, knowing his adversary was listening. "You ever save Fiona, huh? I don't think I shot her anywhere vital."

"I did, actually," came the response, a moment later. "She squealed like a pig."

Jet laughed again, almost mad with glee - what a **fun** fight this was!

"Is that so!" he replied, not bothering to hide his amusement. "What did you do? Break her fingers? Use electrodes? That's pretty cold hearted, doing that to the lady you claim to love."

"I have my ways with girls, Jet," the foxboy's voice was calm and considered. "I plan to do the same to Wave when I bring you three in."

Jet's smile diminished, morphing into a faint sneer.

"You can't break a Babylon Rogue that easily, kid!"

"Maybe." The kitsune didn't sound put off by the comment. "I won't know until I try."

Jet's sneer grew slightly. Wave was like a sister to him; the thought of her being mistreated by anyone didn't sit well with him one damn bit. As a rule, he didn't have a whole lot of loyalty to groups or people or leaders. Even the Armada had just been a means to an end. The name of the Babylon Rogues was important to him, along with the power and mystique it carried with it, but even his pride as a Rogue meant nothing if he couldn't lead his comrades. He was the best; it was his responsibility to watch over them and make sure they lived with pride.

"You out of missiles, kid?"

"You have something in mind?"

"Let's settle this with our guns."

"…Fine by me."

* * *

"Jet may be out of missiles," Wave said to herself, activating the last of her long and medium range weaponry. "But that doesn't mean I am."

Targeting the Tornado as it dueled with the Butcher bird, turning and twisting and coiling at mach speeds, Wave hesitated on the trigger. Jet would probably be pissed at her interrupting his duel, but he did have a tendency to lose himself in the thrill of competition. If he had a weakness, it was that he always needed her to kick their team in the ass and point it in the right direction. There wasn't time to dick around in some midair pissing contest.

The Tornado was distracted, caught between Jet and her missiles…

tap-tap

"What the…?"

Wave looked up, at the source of the sound, and saw a blue hedgehog tapping the glass of her cockpit with his finger. Seeing her notice him, he waggled his finger in a 'no,no,no' gesture. For a few seconds, Wave just stared; slack jawed at the sight, trying to process just how in the name of _all things holy_ a damn hedgehog got above her plane when she was currently cruising at an altitude of twenty thousand feet. Then she looked past him, and saw what he was riding on.

It was… some kind of supped up extreme GEAR.

No: it wasn't just a GEAR. Someone had rigged a GEAR to a weapons platform, using it as a control surface. Large engines coupled with an air system must've been what let it get so high. Was it possible that it used a _magnus effect_ to generate the extra lift, creating a pocket of turbulence as a result of inverted air circulation? Of course! And if that were the case, a GEAR could be used to control the turbulence, creating lift in almost any direction. It was ingenious! And to build it into a weapons platform…!

"One of his inventions..." Wave realized, just then, amazement turning into anger. "Why you…!"

Afterburning away, Wave made a wide turn and came around, targeting the new GEAR and its rider. It had to be Sonic. She'd never met him, but everyone knew who he was. Shooting him down wouldn't only destroy yet another annoying foxboy innovation she had failed to think up, it would get her in the history books. Granted: it wasn't really the sort of reference she wanted, but it would make for an interesting footnote.

She had two mini missile pods left.

"Let's see how well that piece of junk moves!" Wave yelled, and set the systems to hot on the new target. Sonic shot off to the left when she fired, making almost a ninety degree turn and corkscrewing before rising up into the air. Her flurry of missiles, all sixteen of them, raced up after the target designated by her radar and guidance computers. Sonic zipped around like a fly on speed, leaving a trail of blue behind him like an afterimage. Diving back into the mass of missiles, proximity explosions filled the air; bright red and orange dots lighting up the sky.

For a second, it looked like she'd hit him.

And then he buzz bombed her, shooting by her right side. Wave cursed and tried to turn, keeping him in her sights. Most planes could only illuminate a target in its forward cone, but her Ba-223 "Kite" was a little different. It could illuminate targets in almost any direction. Even as she turned, Wave released another set of munitions: two missiles left their rails, spun around in mid air, and acquired their target. She then followed up with two more.

Fires blooming behind them, the missiles accelerated almost to Mach 5 in fifteen seconds. They were 'smart' weapons, with both active/passive radar and infrared homing. Even the Assault GEAR wouldn't be able to outpace them. Even Sonic himself never got much faster than Mach 1, according to common lore. The warheads on the missiles weren't huge, but it wouldn't matter with a small unshielded target like that. Wave watched with anticipation, turning to face the direction of her target, as the four contrails looped and curved.

Sonic corkscrewed again, but then he did something unexpected: turning his board, he coasted for a half a kilometer before blasting off in another direction. The g forces involved would have turned any normal mobian to paste, and even the missiles couldn't keep pace with the maneuver. Turning as tightly as they could, they tried to follow him, but Sonic made another ninety degree turn, and then another, and then another. Making a blazing square in the sky, Sonic then dove and short towards her.

'Is he trying to ram me?' Wave watched, eyes wide, as Sonic got closer and closer. The missiles were still following him when he shot straight up. This close, one of them exploded, catching another, and then another, and then the last one. Four balls of smoke and fire filled the air, but out of the smoke a blue form emerged. He seemed to have some kind of… shield around him.

And then he plowed straight into her wing.

Warning lights and the tortured screech of the computer filled Wave's world as her plane vented fuel and started to spin. Quickly checking the instruments she confirmed the hit, and looking to her right, she could see the damage with her own eyes. That insane hedgehog had actually rammed her! **Who the hell** rammed an airplane at **six hundred miles per hour?!** Not designed to take an impact of that magnitude, her all wing aircraft was starting to come apart. It wouldn't be long before she stalled, entered a death spin, and crashed.

"Damnit!" she cried, not caring over which frequencies, just that Jet and Storm heard her. "I need to bail! One of you guys better catch me!"

Hitting the eject lever, Wave closed her eyes as the hatch blew open and a rocket motor shot her ejection seat free of the flaming wreck that had once been her proud Ba-223 jet fighter. Opening her eyes, now well out of the cloud of spiraling, fast moving debris, Wave felt her ejection seat move. With a hiss, it fell away, and she adjusted her feet as her shoes locked into position. Gliding on her Type-W flight style GEAR, Wave held out her arms and found her balance.

Unfortunately, she was now some five miles in the air.

* * *

"Wave!" Jet hissed, and felt his plane quake as a solid hit scored against its fuselage. A warning light popped up, indicating that one of the fuel tanks had been punctured. The green goshawk's eyes widened as the realization set in. He'd been… shot down…?

"You should pay closer attention," Miles voice came in over the comm. Then, as if to rub it in, the kitsune added, "Hmm! Isn't that a surprise? Another pet project of yours that didn't quite work out?"

_"Fiona…"_

_"Hmm!" Jet mused out loud, waving his gun dramatically. "Isn't that a surprise? Another pet project of yours that didn't quite work out? Fiona here's told us some interesting stuff about you, lover boy."_

His own words…

"Damnit!" Jet turned away from the dogfight.

* * *

Taking off her now useless helmet, Wave tossed it and pulled down her goggles. The air was freezing cold this high up, even in her flight suit. How the hedgehog survived without one, she couldn't imagine. Maybe he was just stupid enough to not care about it…. Or, more likely, that strange shield protected him. The air was thin up here, too, so it had to be something like that. Retrieving a new facemask from one of the pockets of her flight suit, Wave put it on and sucked in a long deep breath.

Going into a slow spin, she started to look for Jet or Storm.

It was actually an amazing view. She'd never used the ejection seat herself, only on dummies, so she'd never really thought about it before. It was like skydiving from an incredible height, and on her GEAR, she could move wherever she wanted. As long as it was down. Far below, the whole world seemed stretched out for her viewing pleasure. She could even see distant Starlight City and the lines of the Mobian Armed Forces. To her left, she could see the fleet battle: the _Nassau_ was exchanging fire with two smaller mobian ships, and the _Port Royale_ and the _Blue Typhoon_ were firing salvos at each other.

Then she saw Storm's fighter/bomber climb up towards her. Leveling her board, she gently alighted on his wing. His Ba-177 looked pretty badly beat up, but it was a tough plane, just like its pilot. It was holding in there. Looking around, she saw a blue streak circling them. Sonic pulled around, matching their speed and course, as if daring them to try something.

He even waved.

'Cocky bastard…' Wave thought bitterly. 'If he just stayed crawling on the ground where he belonged, I'd teach him not to mess with us!'

The roar of a machine gun cut off any further thoughts, and she turned to see Sonic speed off, avoiding the spray of fire. A smile grew on her face when she saw the source of the attack. Jet's Butcher bird swooped in, flying close and covering them. Wave's expression wavered, though, when she saw the damage to it.

She'd built all their planes herself, and the Butcher bird was her masterpiece. Now it was shot up. The armor had been able to cushion most of it, but one or two shots had punctured a fuel line. Wave almost wept to see it in such a shape. Worse even than the damage done was that she knew, she just _knew_, that Jet had gotten it while flying back to help her. Turning her head more, she saw a distant dot against the sky.

A light blue beam lanced out, blowing off the right wing of Storm's fighter.

"Storm!" Wave yelled, even knowing he couldn't hear her. Pushing off the intact wing with her board, Wave took to the air. She had to put some distance between herself and the flaming wreck before it blew. To her relief, Storm ejected, using the same system she had. His plane fell away, burning. A second or two later, it vanished in a fireball.

Storm was less steady on his GEAR, unused to being so high up. Jet's plane raced under them, and they settled on its wings. The ground was closer now, maybe just a mile away. Behind them, Wave could see the blue blur, Sonic, crisscrossing the sky. She could also see the Tornado Two. It wasn't moving much, but it was much more deliberate in its motions, as it took all the time it needed for a perfect shot.

'He's… just going to pick us apart…' she realized.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

* * *

"We've got them!" Sally exclaimed. For a moment, she tried to reach over and pat Miles on the back, congratulating him, but the straps keeping her in her seat prevented it.

"Look!" she instead focused on a distant rumble. "The _Port Royale's_ going down, and I think the _Nassau_ is turning to try and run. We won!"

"No."

Sally blinked, taken aback by his answer. "What do you mean: no?"

"This was never about the Armada," Miles explained, his voice hard and unsympathetic. "This was always about _them_. The Babylon Rogues. Crushing the Battlebirds again means nothing to me. But breaking the Rogues. That… I'm looking forward to..."

That tone of voice… it was nothing like what she remembered of him.

"Tails, you aren't going to…?"

"It would be so easy," he replied, and the power of the Tornado Two sung all around him. Jet's plane was losing fuel, and couldn't afford to maneuver with Wave and Storm on its wings. The Tornado had them dead to rights.

"The flip of a switch," Miles continued. "And they _disappear_. Never to cause trouble again. Doesn't that sound easy?"

"It isn't how we do things," Sally said, her voice stern. "You've beaten them. You've won."

"Is that what you call _winning_?" he asked, hands on the trigger. "How many times did you beat Nack, just to have him show up again later? How many times have we beaten the Eggman, just to have him come back? Your cry of 'victory' is premature."

Sally couldn't believe what he was saying. "Premature?"

"Victory isn't just beating someone," he continued. "Victory is when they never cross your path again, in a month, a year, or a **lifetime**!"

'He's going to kill them!' she realized, with a start.

"Don't do this."

For a few seconds, he just sat there, saying nothing.

"Don't do this," she said again. "Let them land. We can…"

And then he fired.

* * *

Wave thought she was going to die.

One moment they had been cruising along, getting ever closer to the ground. Then, a heartbeat later, they were leaves in a storm. Jet's plane, the Butcher bird, had leapt up from under them. A wave of heat passed over her as fuel caught fire, tossing her into the air.

'Jet! Storm!'

And then there was only the sound of fury.

Wave tumbled, forcing her eyes open. The world was spinning all around her, but she could see Jet's plane. It was mostly intact and careening like a top, the tail wobbling as it spewed fire. Wave tried to focus her eyes on the spinning cockpit, trying to see whether it was empty or not. The shot had cleanly cut off one of the plane's wings, but the fuselage had escaped miraculously intact.

"Jet!" Wave tried to scream, but she couldn't see him.

And then the Butcher bird exploded.

"JET!"

"You yell too much."

Looking up, she saw him, already calmly balancing on his green Type-J GEAR. Running a hand through his head feathers, the hawk glanced over his shoulder at the tumbling, burning pieces of his fighter plane. A pensive look crossed his features, and then he faced forward, determination filling his eyes.

"Wave. Follow me." He held out his hand.

She took it without hesitation.

Riding down towards the quickly approaching ground, Jet maneuvered the two of them over to where Storm was caught in a spin spiral. Holding his board close to Wave's, he created a turbulent wave between them. Passing by their larger comrade, Storm instinctively caught the wake and recovered. The three Rogues shot down towards the ground, but the fall had been just short enough that they managed to recover. Each one used a last second jet of air to cushion their collision, recover, and pick up forward momentum.

The chase was on.

* * *

"Tails, did you…"

"I said it would be too easy," he cut her off. "Autopilot: engage. Control lock code Delta-Delta-Omega. Holding pattern: angels eleven."

"Wait!" Sally tried to say more, but then a sudden gust of wind filled the cabin, tossing her back against the seat. Miles didn't bother ejecting. His system wasn't quite as… refined as Wave's, though he had to admit that adding GEARs to the ejection system was very interesting. He simply jumped out of the cockpit and pressed a concealed button on his glove. When he did, a gold colored object shot out of an internal compartment on the right side of the Tornado Two Custom.

Connecting in midair with his own GEAR, Miles silently admonished himself for not adding an assault pack to it. Sadly, there just hadn't been the time or opportunity lately to make the required changes to the Tornado Two. Luckily, there **had** been time to make a few improvements based on the assault pack concept. His _Yellow Tail Mk3_ wasn't just your average flight type GEAR.

Racing up alongside him, Sonic appeared on his new _Blue Star IV_.

Exchanging a quick nod with the hedgehog, the two of them hit the ground. As they did so, the assault pack on Sonic's board disengaged. Releasing its hold on Sonic's board, it took off and assumed a holding pattern. Up ahead of them, the Rogues took a sharp turn. They were headed into an area littered by debris and ruined war machines. Today's battle had even added a few.

"They're headed for the canyon!" Miles yelled.

"I know!" Sonic yelled back, over the fierce winds. "Go high! I'll go low!"

"We'll meet in the middle." The kitsune agreed, nodding his head. "Got it!"

The Babylon Rogues had only a slight lead over their opponents. Sonic swerved left and right, avoiding the assorted wrecks in the way. Pressing his board for more speed, he hunkered down to provide a lower profile. He had little love or hate for the Babylon Rogues; they were really more of a pain in his little bro's side, but he'd heard that their leader, Jet, fancied himself the fastest thing on the planet. _That_… was something Sonic the Hedgehog couldn't just let slide.

Up ahead, he could see the three Rogues heading for The Scar proper: a massive gash in the planet that had been caused by the self destruction of the Scrap Brain Zone. The old name was Gigan Valley, but maybe Gigan Canyon would be its name after the war. In the here and now, it was still infested with Eggman robots, mining and doing salvage work. Hitting the edge of it and using it for a jump, Sonic spun like a top before angling down to build up speed.

The canyon itself was about a four hundred meters wide, on average, and half as deep. Innumerable crags and outcroppings made it a treacherous place to navigate, and the occasional robot taking pot shots at passerby didn't exactly make it much safer. Where the Rogues thought they were going, Sonic had no idea. Maybe they were crazy enough to think they could ride in one end and out the other unscathed. Facing that sort of daredevil craziness in an opponent…

Sonic grinned happily.

'I like your style, guys!' he thought, jumping and flipping off one edge of the sheer cliffs to the other. A rotund Eggman robot standing next to a mining machine extended its arm, firing at the Rogues in the distance, and then Sonic when he got closer. Racing up an old landslide and into a cave, Sonic swerved, trying to avoiding the shots of that robot, and then two others that popped out, eager to put their seldom used security protocols to use.

The Rogues dashed up along a wall and then broke up. Two headed into a mining tunnel, and the other headed higher. That latter one had to be Wave, since she caught a jump and used it to propel herself higher than Sonic himself could with his speed type GEAR. The inside of the cave was dark and treacherous, with mining gear and more robots littered on the floor and even the ceiling. Slapping aside a robot bat with a light on its rear (where _had_ he seen those before?) Sonic kept moving.

Ahead of him, Storm and Jet started spinning, creating whirlwinds. Sonic leaned to the side, his hand almost touching the ground, letting his momentum push him up the side of the wall. He hung there, passing robots and tornados, until the cavern split. Jet and Storm both hung right, and Sonic followed them. Mining lasers swiveled and fired, long beams of red light that they had to swerve and duck or jump to avoid. The obstacles slowed the two rogues slightly, and Sonic caught up just a little more.

They then jumped up, grinding, into a mining cart monorail. Skidding along it, they headed up and into another section of the caves. Sonic quickly jumped and followed, jumping when a mining cart suddenly appeared, traveling under the rail with a load of ore. The top part, connecting to the rail, would have tossed him had he not hit the jump right. Up ahead, more of the mining rails came together in a massive cavern, crisscrossing and filling the air like a metal web.

Below the transport hub, smelting from foundries filled the air with acrid smoke and a poisonous haze. More Eggman robots in a dozen shapes and sizes milled about, working tirelessly. Then an alarm sounded, and flying security robots started to head towards them. Most were the rotund Eggman mockeries he'd originally used on Angel Island (back then, they'd been state of the art), but others were mining refits. One swooped down with diamond sharp claws, designed to shred through rock. Sonic jumped and tumbled between its claws, putting on a new burst of speed as the rail dipped downward.

Ahead of him, Storm shot ahead of Jet, who slowed slightly. The big Babylonian jumped down from one rail to another, and his smaller leader followed. The reason for the new arrangement became clear when Storm batted away a 'WARNING' sign that was otherwise preventing travel down that route. Not wanting to be left behind, Sonic also jumped, taking the opportunity to quickly smash one of the clawed bots heading up to intercept him. Not surprisingly, they seemed to prefer going after him rather than the Rogues.

"I suppose I'm still 'Priority One: Hedgehog,'" Sonic mused, landing and heading after his target. They were making this interesting, at least! He hadn't had the opportunity for fun like this in a long time!

Sonic soon found out why this particular track had a WARNING sign on it. Entire pieces and sections were missing. Jet resumed the lead position, jumping off the rail and onto another section hanging from the ceiling. He then jumped back down, leading Storm and Sonic out of the network of caves and back into the canyon itself. The gorge here was a straight drop down into a bottom filled with rather un-inviting smoke. Up ahead, Sonic could see the tips of Starlight's towers, well in the distance.

Grinding along the rail, and then jumping some twenty feet to catch another intact rail line, Sonic caught up just a bit more. Jet and Storm kept having to jump over broken sections of track, or over construction signs. A couple seconds after he started to feel just a bit too clever, having found a shortcut, Sonic's eyes widened as a whole train of carts headed his way. On the upperside of the rail the train was just a series of bumps waiting to send him flying. Jumping off the rail entirely, Sonic angled himself to catch another rail that headed upwards; parallel to the route Jet and Storm took.

Facing forward, he saw both headed into a processing facility.

"Oh, this is just great…"

Sure enough, Jet and Storm ducked and slid right inside. Sonic did the same, following his rail line. Inside was a spiraling system of more rail lines, and molten steel falling in great waterfalls of red and orange. Trying to follow the layout with his eyes, and find a short cut, Sonic jumped again. More Eggman robots swarmed in, firing and surging at them. Sonic bounced off one, smashing it and using it as a springboard to hit another, and then another. Grinding along a rail, he then dropped down and found himself just a hundred paces behind Storm. The big Rogue looked over his shoulder with shock.

"Yo." Sonic gave him a friendly wave.

Storm gave an angry growl, and flipped around. Facing backwards now, he held out his hand, palm facing the opposite direction. Grabbing hold of the first thing to get in range, he seized a mining robian by the arm and tossed him onto the track. Sonic winced in sympathy (his Uncle was still a robian after all) and jumped over the flailing body. Just because he was sympathetic, didn't mean he'd screw himself over. Besides, robians with Eggman programming were just as dangerous as any other robot.

Storm them grabbed a piece of piping. Holding it in a way that would make a mobster proud, Storm slowed and tried to get in melee range. Swinging it wildly, and with enough force to spin someone's head around, Sonic ducked and dodged every strike. For someone who had fights with Knuckles every couple months (or so it felt like), Storm's strength and skill weren't a particular problem. Letting the bruiser lean into a swing, Sonic jumped right over him, bounced off his head, and landed behind his back.

"Hey!" Storm roared, flipping around.

But Sonic was already ahead of him, and had no further interest in a fight. Ahead of the hedgehog, Jet was still racing along at top speed. Sonic smirked; he still had that bet to look forward to, and Jet's tail feathers were almost in reach. Then they finally emerged out of the processing facility, back into the open air. Jet sped up, and then passed over a switching station. Instead of changing lanes, though, the Babylon Rogue jumped clear into the air.

Sonic followed without wondering where the hell they were actually going. What mattered was that Jet was right there, and that Sonic was about to catch up to him. Turning in midair, the leader of the Rogues faced Sonic. For a few seconds, the two coasted along, flying over the ravine. Then Jet... lifted his finger to his face, pulled down one of his eyelids, and stuck out his tongue.

'What?' Sonic gave a shocked look. 'How dare you?!'

Pushing up his nose with his thumb, Sonic rolled up his eyes.

Jet responded by pulling back some of his head feathers and opening his mouth stupidly wide. He then spun around, smashed a mining robot, and landed on an outcropping of rock, riding it up to an edge in the canyon. Sonic followed; a sour look on his face. Jet had beaten him in that round, but he'd have the last laugh!

The Rogue led them up the side of the canyon, and then he jumped again. Sonic was right behind, and halfway across the canyon, he saw a purple and yellow blur swooping in from another direction. Seeing Wave and Miles, Sonic guessed that the 'high road' had become closed for repairs. Not that the blue one minded. This just meant he got to savor his victory even more.

Landing together on the other side, the five riders swerved around a large caterpillar-like digging robot with half its body stuck in the wall. The cavern walls dipped and zagged, and the group had to jump up, and then down and then up again as well as cut left and right and then left. Jet jumped again as the edge gave way to a sheer drop. Taking to the sky, Sonic glanced down and saw a massive robot shuffling around at the bottom of the gorge.

They finally landed on a small artificial outcropping dotted with landing pads. While wide open, it was far from obstacle free. Jet literally had to plow through surprised Eggman robots in their way, while others tried to jump, grab or shoot anything that caught their fancy. Sonic spun like a top, slicing them apart as they got close. Behind him, Storm batted robots away with his fists, Wave smashed them with an oversized wrench, and Miles flipped, eviscerating them with his tails.

Through the hail of gunfire, plasma, and claws, the riders emerged, jumping through the air and onto a winding pipe that ran parallel to the sheer walls of the canyon. Taking a quick look behind, Sonic saw Miles sparring with Wave and Storm, and focused his attentions on Jet. The pipe they were currently on led all the way to the end of the canyon and up to the edge of Starlight City. There was no other route to take, either down or to the sides, or even up.

Going faster, pushing his board to the limit, Sonic caught a slight gust from Jet's GEAR and caught it, speeding up. Finally, finally, he got close enough. Reaching out for a bet winning handful of feathers, he was stopped just short as Jet spun around and grabbed his wrist. Blocking a punch to the face, Sonic smirked, face to face with the Babylon Rogue leader.

"Not bad!" Sonic complimented.

"It's been fun!" Jet agreed, the two of them pushing against each other and trying to throw the other off the winding pipe, less than a meter wide. Adjusting their stances and stabilizing their boards as they fought, the hawk and the hedgehog exchanged blows. A forearm to Sonic's face made him wince, but he replied with a blow to Jet's left eye. Another blow split Sonic's lip. Another sent blood flying out of Jet's mouth. Then the two butted heads, smirking at each other.

"We'll have to do this again sometime!" Sonic said between clenched teeth.

"You enjoy getting beat that much?" Jet quipped, spitting blood.

He reached up and grabbed Sonic by the ear. Sonic responded by grabbing the bird's goggles. Their boards skidded and scraped the pipe below as they head butted again and again before taking turns trying to push the other off the edge and into the deep abyss below. Reaching the very end of the pipe, the two hit the curb and flew through the air, still fighting. Even when they hit the ground, rolling and skidding, they were exchanging blows.

Finally, Sonic managed to tuck his board under his body, and use his stomach muscles to pull the rest of his body upright. Jet tumbled for one or two seconds and then flipped back upright as well. Sonic turned around, smirking despite the blood dribbling down his nose and chin. In his right hand, he held an emerald green feather.

Jet reached behind, and felt through his tail feathers.

"Unbelievable." He wiped his bloody beak. "You magnificent bastard…"

They were in the abandoned husk of Starlight City now. Taking a turn, Jet headed down an empty street, up an alley, and then into a district populated by vast, empty warehouses. Detecting his presence, the doors to one opened wide. Inside, the Rogues personal airship waited. Sonic sped up and cut in between him and the slowly opening bay doors.

"I think this little race is over," the hedgehog announced, licking his bloody lip.

Jet just glowered at him.

"It's **all** over!" a voice concurred. A second later Storm crashed to the ground, board flying off his feet and skidding across the empty warehouse. Wave managed a more dignified stop, but her headscarf was undone, her feathers wild, and her flame-emblazoned flight jacket torn. Looking behind him, Jet saw Tails standing between them and the door out.

"Hey," Sonic called, holding up the stolen tail feather. "You owe me a drink. And this time, I get to pick which one!"

"You didn't like the water I treated you to last time?"

"Actually, no, I didn't. It didn't even have _ice_."

"Damnit!" Wave fell to her knees.

Miles stepped off his GEAR, craning his neck back and forth. His twin tails flowed through the air behind him, ready for anything. He had a black eye from the fight before, but it didn't seem to be affecting him any. Storm's one good blow had been partly blocked by the fox's hands, when he found his tails occupied with Wave's attacks. He took a few slow steps towards the Rogues.

"You didn't think you'd get away with it, did you? As for the Chaos Emerald you stole…" he smirked, now, a mirror image of Sonic's ever present expression.

Except this smirk bared canine teeth.

"As for that Emerald," he said, with some relish. "It's a **fake**."

Jet crossed his arms.

Storm clutched his shoulder, trying to stop the flow of blood.

"A fake?" Wave turned to glare at the kitsune. "You think we were after the Emerald?"

A moment of confusion flickered across Miles' face.

"You were," he stated.

"You idiot!" She snapped, standing back up. "Tao wanted the Emerald. Does it look like we have it?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "I don't see it."

"Then what were you after?"

Wave snickered. It was a small chuckle as first, but soon grew into a full blown laughter. Jet closed his eyes, taking the whole thing in stride. Sonic still seemed perplexed, and Tails' own confusion soon mixed with annoyance and anger.

"What were you after?" he demanded. "What did you take?"

Wave's bout of laughter died down, and she held up her hands in defeat.

"Find out for yourself," she said, "You're the genius here."

"I don't know where you get this," he growled back at her, grabbing her arm and pulling it down. "This _thing_ with me. I did what I had to do, stopping the Armada!"

"I don't care about that!" Wave tried to pull her arm free, and when she couldn't, she settled for punching him in the face. "I don't care about the Armada!" She hit him again.

He finally grabbed her hand.

"Then what do you care about?" he asked, earnestly. This was like Fiona all over again. "Why do you hate me so much?"

"You…" she tried to free her fist, but he had her by the wrist. He may have been smaller than her once, but he'd always been fairly strong, and now he was well outside her league.

"What?" he asked again.

Standing by himself, eyes still closed, Jet sighed.

"You ruined my life," Wave finally said, glad to get it out. Glad to say what she hadn't been able to before.

"I never even met you before this year…"

"When you left… the Armada," Wave explained, her voice growing bitter. "I took over your position. But no one trusted me. They were afraid I'd do what you did and turn against them. I couldn't do anything, go anywhere… I couldn't meet anyone like me, or share what I learned. And whenever they looked at me, I know… they saw you…"

He let her go, and Wave took a step back, hands clenched at her sides.

"And nothing I ever did…" She looked up at him with proud, angry eyes. "Nothing ever let me step out of your shadow! You can't imagine what my life has been like, thanks to you!"

Miles stared at her, and then he closed his eyes.

"I don't regret what I've done." He opened his eyes again, determination written in midnight blue. "And I can't say I'm sorry for what I don't regret. But I do know how you feel."

"For a long time..." he sighed, avoiding looking at a certain someone. "I never thought I could step out of Sonic's shadow. I thought: why can't I do anything more than this? When will I be recognized for my accomplishments? What's the point in trying to be the best, when I can never catch up? What's wrong with me?"

Standing by himself, Sonic shook his head slightly. "Geez…"

"But there's nothing wrong with me," the kitsune continued, looking only at Wave. "And there's nothing wrong with you. I could count the people who rival your skills on one hand. But if you think just skill and ability will make others recognize your greatness, you're wrong. Greatness is not something you can build. It comes from changing people's lives, for better or for worse."

Wave seemed to digest that, but still frowned.

"That may be fine for you, but I can't…"

"You can!" he yelled, interrupting her. "You can. If you actually tried. You didn't have to work for the Armada. You chose to!"

His lack of sympathy made her flinch.

"You worked for them because it was easy! Because you didn't want to risk leaving them…" He took a step towards her, tilting his head. "You think it was easy for me? Even if I was a slave, even if I was just a mutant freak they found useful, they became what little family I had. But I knew I couldn't live with myself, with what I did, working for them."

"They'd have hunted me down!"

Miles turned to Jet. "Look over there. He'd have protected you. Storm would protected you. And for what it's worth…" He turned back to Wave. "I'd have protected you, too. So would Sonic… even though he's the kind of guy who'd jump to _anyone's_ defense."

Wave looked at Jet, and the green hawk offered a thoughtful nod. Even Storm, now getting back on his feet, expressed the same. They had never been in love with the Armada, but it had been a necessary evil. The Eggman controlled so much of the world, how else were they supposed to make a living? Even if they found treasure, like their fathers had hunted for, what were they supposed to do with it? Things had been so hopeless back then. And they had been birds, so the Armada had accepted them. Welcomed them.

Had she… really been holding them back there?

She looked behind her and saw Sonic. The cocky hedgehog was cleaning his ear with his pinky, looking blasé about everything around him. She had always thought his life so easy. He was the Great Hero of Mobius, after all. Who had ever heard of him having trouble? Just like his sidekick. Hadn't they had everything handed to them on a silver platter? Super powers? Friends? A home?

"What does it matter, anyway?" Wave asked, running her hand through her messed up head feathers.

"It matters," Tails assured her. "Because if you want to change - _if you want to help _- then I'll do what I can for you. But if you stay my enemy… then I won't give you another chance. **I'll bury you**. Along with everyone else I've killed today."

The words sent an uncomfortable chill down Sonic's spine.

He hadn't really been paying attention, but thinking back, he supposed a lot of mobians **had** died today. Really, the blue hedgehog was used to dealing with robots. He couldn't recall ever actually taking a life, as least not on purpose. For a second, he remembered toasting to his little buddy 'kicking ass' the other day. He hadn't really thought about too much then, either.

As a general rule, he'd been happy to let Tails manage his own affairs even before they moved to Station Square. Sonic wasn't interested in technology stuff, or tactics, or this or that part of the city that needed to be fixed or maintained. When his little bro went into his workshop, Sonic went off and did something that was actually interesting. Sometimes, he'd help try out some new toy, or use some new invention on one of his adventures, but that was basically it. Had Tails killed people before? Taken in a broad context, as the Captain and creator of the _Blue Typhoon_ and all those planes and missiles, he obviously had.

"Let's forget the past." Oblivious to Sonic's thoughts, Miles held out his hand to Wave. "The future is what I look forward to. You'll still face trial, but I have enough clout to stay an execution."

The lilac Rogue took his hand, but with some residual vexation.

"Don't think I'll stop trying to prove I'm better than you," she hissed. "I don't really believe that crap you spewed, but don't want to hang, either."

He nodded, shaking her hand. "Fair enough. You can come to your own conclusions."

"Man, what a day!" Sonic interrupted, suddenly turning to his right. "All we need now is for the Eggman to show up and…"

And nothing happened.

"Huh." Sonic turned back to the beaten Babylon Rogues. "I guess he's busy."

"You know," Miles spoke up, a little louder than necessary. "I'm sure his life doesn't revolve around bursting in at inopportune times and attacking you, Sonic."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "We'll see."

The kitsune fox just shook his head in exasperation. "So what were you doing, anyway, breaking into one of my facilities? If it wasn't the Chaos Emerald, what was it?"

Jet replied, speaking up when Wave just grumbled something unintelligible.

"The Flames of Iblis," he said, explaining it without flare. "We collected the five Arks of the Cosmos from around the world. Wave discovered that, together, they form a power source called Iblis. Or Solaris. Or something."

"A power source?" Miles asked, his curiosity piqued.

"One equal to the Chaos Emeralds," Wave added.

"Iblis," Sonic said the name. "Sounds weird."

And further discussion was cut off as the sound of war machines and shuttle craft landing nearby drowned out the possibility of conversation. Heavily armed marines stormed the warehouse, and the Babylon Rogues offered no resistance as they searched the landed airship and took the birds away. An hour later, a detachment of Eggman robots did investigate the area, but ultimately found nothing of interest.

* * *

Shadow touched ground, briefcase under his arm. The approach to Robotropolis had been free of any interruptions, though as he looked up, the black hedgehog could see the two wings of ED-1002 robots that had escorted them the last four miles. He could have simply Chaos Controlled his way to wherever he wanted, but that irked Robotnick's sense of 'control' over the situation. So he rationalized his order by claiming that it 'drained energy from the Chaos Emeralds' and other nonsense. Shadow obliged him because using his Chaos Control ability was tiring, and worth saving for when he really needed it. Over the last year he had developed his level of control a great deal.

Flanked by his white Combot escorts, Shadow waited.

The landing pad's hanger doors opened, like a giant mouth complete with rows of white metal teeth. Bathed in artificial light, Shadow could make out the outline of several figures approaching him. He narrowed his eyes and recognized them immediately. The shortest, in the middle, was the small human – Snively – and the others were two pair of Combots and three pair of Shadowbots. The latter was a rare sight over the last year, after most of their manufacturing facilities had fallen victim to terrorist attack.

Shadow stepped forward, noting the security all around him.

He smiled. Oh, he was planning on betraying them all right, but not here. Not now. Snively stopped just feet away from the Ultimate Lifeform, and held out his hand, almost petulantly.

"I assume you were successful," he said.

It was not a question, but Shadow answered anyway. "I was."

"What took so long?" The human did ask, this time. Shadow handed over the briefcase, and Snively's arms lurched a bit as the unexpected weight within. Shadow inwardly shook his head. This little human truly was weak.

"Mr. Tweed was not as cooperative as I had been led to believe." Shadow shrugged. "He had me do some jobs for him."

"Jobs?" Snively turned and began the long walk through the open hanger and into the heart of West Robotropolis. Shadow followed, and the whole procession continued apace.

"Eliminating rivals in the city," Shadow explained, with a smile. "Along with other petty tasks. When I was done, he tried to double cross me. He set up a building to explode and informed me that his men were guarding it. When I went inside, he triggered the bombs."

"That would explain why you are minus four Stormtroopers."

Shadow's nose wrinkled at the word. He had never like that stupid nickname for the white Combots he commanded. It reminded him too much of what had happened on the ARK. Still, he didn't let it affect him beyond that, and continued his little story with an almost bland and passionless tone of voice.

"They were lost. Needless to say, after that I had to coerce the Emerald out of Mr. Tweed. He was more than cooperative after I killed his wife and threatened to do the same to his son."

Snively didn't respond to that for a full second.

Shadow raised an eyebrow in surprise. Was the little human shocked? Surprised? Not by what he had done, Shadow suspected, but by how unmoved the one who had done such a thing was by it. He saw Snively turn his head slightly to look at the black hedgehog.

'Yes,' Shadow thought. 'I killed her. Choked her to death with my bare hands. And how do I feel about that?'

The human looked away.

'I don't feel anything at all.' Shadow admitted to himself. 'Not sadness. Not pride. Nothing.'

"You got the Emerald," Snively said, finally.

"Of course I did."

"Did… the Freedom Fighters show up?" Snively had sounded almost hopeful that they would.

"No," Shadow said, simply.

Another slightly uncomfortable pause.

"Good," the human replied. "This way. Project Helios is almost complete, but we've hit a small… snag."

--

**Author's Notes:**

Well, this is a relative first for me. I've decided to add some notes at the end here, to cover some issues regarding the chapter. I may do this for the others, too (and the previous chapters, retroactively).

This chapter brings the Babylon Rogues arc to a close, and finally brings us back to the traditional Helios arc. But so much else is different from the original story! Don't assume, because you read that one, that you'll be able to guess what's going to happen next. Not only are things very different, but Silver and Blaze are still in the past messing around with the timeline.

I hope my readers enjoyed the little fleet battle here. It's a shade of the fighting in "New World Order" I carried over, though this is the most I'll typically rely on it from a narrative point of view. It was all necessary in driving home the differences between how Tails/Miles contributes to the war (through technology) and how Sonic and Sally do (in a more personal, individual way). The Babylon Rogues get their last big fight/chase scene here as well. I'm glad I could give them a good showing, since we never got to see all they were capable of in the (incomplete) "Through Fire and Shadow" COA prequel comic.

Of course, if anyone has any questions or comments or even requests about the story, I cherish every review I get, and I try and answer any one that posits a question or comment. I've also put a fair amount of COA:ACO based art up on my devart account and my personal archive, including Title Pictures for several chapters (including this one). Check it out. You may enjoy it.

For reference, here are the ships involved in the fight this chapter:

BBA Curacao - "Leogane" class  
BBA Belize - "Leogane" class  
BBA Antigua - "Eleuthera" class  
BBA Nevis - "Eleuthera" class  
BBA Nassau - "Nassau" class Light Cruiser  
BBA Guadeloupe - "Montserrat" class Refit Cruiser  
BBA Port Royale - "Tortuga" class Brigandine

HMS Prince Edward - "Culverin" class DD refit  
HMS Prince James - "Egg Slasher" class (captured) War Destroyer  
HMS Prince Emerson - "Egg Catcher" class (captured) Defense Destroyer  
HMS Frederick - "Egg Enemy" class (captured) Standard Cruiser


	20. Mastermind i

**"To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage."  
- Lao-Tzu**

* * *

Knothole.

Despite the fighting elsewhere, at least the city of Knothole was peaceful. Once little more than a lakeside hamlet, it had grown dramatically over the last five years into the new cultural capital of the Mobian mainland. Arranged in concentric rings and quadrants, it was a free city as long as one was inside it. Movement in and out, was another matter entirely; tightly regulated and overseen by special elements of the Mobian Armed Forces and the Freedom Fighters.

For refugees, Knothole was a destination one didn't expect to come back from. Robians and the dispossessed fortunate enough to have good connections flowed in, and de-roboticized mobians either remained or were carefully screened and shipped out to other "secure" areas. The wars had led to a vast population of homeless and jobless, and the Kingdom had quickly seen the misfortune as an opportunity to reshuffle the ethnic and political landscape of the continent. Areas that had been formerly homogeneous were now broken up and divided along multi-cultural lines, ensuring no racial power blocs could arise from the ruins as they had in so many other areas in the south.

Children, a special case, remained in Knothole where they were adopted wholesale by the state. It was a central location for the education and care of many of the Kingdom's next generation, where the virtues of hard work, service, and obedience were drilled ceaselessly into the nation's charges. Despite this bureaucratically efficient system, more than a few children slipped through the cracks in the red tape... some by accident and some by design. As a result, Knothole also had (ironically enough) the largest street urchin population in the region.

Blaze hadn't known any of this.

She hadn't even given such a thing a second thought. Her concern had been the mission that she and Silver were on. Their underworld contacts were trying to keep low, so their trip back into Knothole had been rather ad hoc. Luckily, a smuggler had agreed to take them on, and his arrangement with certain city border patrollers had let them sneak in undetected and undisturbed. Despite its clandestine nature, authorized smugglers and merchants kept a constant influx of goods flowing into the city, both legal and illegal.

Once inside, Blaze had figured that the rest of her mission would be a relative cakewalk. She'd even stopped to buy some food from a local vendor. At some point between paying for the "chili-dog" (as it was called) and actually biting into the messy foodstuff, she'd felt someone bump into her. Knothole was a big city by her standards, and very crowded, so she'd rather gotten used to being bumped into on her visits here. The other mobian mumbled an apology before hurrying off, and Blaze had quickly disregarded the whole thing.

Until she reached up to her collar and confirmed that her necklace was gone.

Incredulous, it took her a few seconds to wrap her mind around the fact. Blaze, Princess and Guardian of the Sol Emeralds – pick pocketed! What did she do? What else had been taken? Should she call out, cry for help, and draw attention to herself? No: that was probably the worst thing she could do! Spinning around and dropping her forgotten late lunch/early dinner, the feline stared at the shifting mass of mobians all around her. There was no way to tell who had bumped into her.

'What should I do?' Blaze's hands tensed and she could feel the inkling of her power rising to the surface. A spark danced between her fingers, followed by another. Confusion and dismay was quickly being displaced by anger and frustration. Not only was the necklace an important family heirloom, but it had one of the Sol Emeralds sealed inside it!

"Excuse me, Miss?" someone asked, and Blaze whirled on the interloper.

"What?" she snapped, still unsure what to do. Running off in some random direction after the thief was tempting but stupid and hot headed, which she wasn't, leaving her to fume and think up some kind of plan.

"Is something wrong?" The 'interloper' turned out to be a girl, younger than Blaze by a handful of years. She was a mobian rabbit, a fairly common breed, with light coloring save for the ends of her ears, around her eyes, and on a patch on the crown of her head, where it was a chestnut brown. Wearing a titian orange dress and a little blue bow, she seemed totally harmless.

'Who is this girl?'

"What?" Blaze asked, wary despite the girl's appearance. "What makes you think that?"

"The look on your face," the girl explained. "And you went deathly pale and dropped your food… If I can, I'd like to help."

'She wants to help me? Some stranger she doesn't even know! She should be more cautious, or she'll get taken advantage of…'

"My…" Blaze finally relented. What was the harm, anyway? "My necklace. Someone just bumped into me and took it. I… I'm not sure what to do."

The girl processed this information. "What is the necklace made of?"

"What does that matter? It's important to me…!"

The bunny girl held up her hands, innocently. "I didn't mean it like that. But if someone took it, they'll want to sell it. And where they take it depends on how valuable other people think it is."

Blaze stared at the girl for a second. She was right. There was no way for anyone to know there was a Sol Emerald in there. The Emeralds didn't even exist here. And a thief wouldn't care about the emotional attachment someone had to an object. The feline revised her opinion of the younger girl. She may have looked innocent enough, and even sounded it, but she had a measure of worldliness and familiarity with this era that Blaze didn't.

"White gold, I think," she replied. Blaze had never really thought about what it was made of before; she'd just worn it for as long as she could remember.

"Ok. Let's see if Cheese can help us find it before it gets pawned."

"Cheese?" Blaze asked. Was this girl off her rocker? What could a dairy product do to help?

A tiny blue creature jumped up, literally out of no where, and onto the girl's shoulder. Blaze's eyes widened at the little thing; she'd never seen anything like it. It looked like a little blue and gold blob with barely recognizable legs and arms and a round little face. Someone, probably the girl, also seemed to have attached a red bow to it somehow. It didn't remind Blaze of anything in either the animal or plant kingdom.

Maybe it was from the fungus kingdom, then? Like a mushroom. But no: _that would just be silly_.

"This is my friend Cheese," the girl said, and she held out her hand. The little blob landed in it, and looked up at Blaze with big curious eyes. It seemed harmless, if a little slimy and gross looking.

"Cheese?" Blaze half asked and the little creature formed a smile on its otherwise formless face. "What is it?"

"A Chao! They're a rare species found on Angel Island. My family runs Knothole's only Chao Garden! Oh!" The girl quickly bowed her head politely. "My name's Cream, by the way."

"Um… I'm Blaze…" the older girl ventured. "Nice to meet you?"

"Nice to meet you, too!" Cream beamed, and held her chao up to Blaze's face. "Get a good smell, Cheese!"

Blaze cringed back a bit, as the chao leaned in to 'sniff' at her neck. With what, she couldn't imagine. The creature didn't **look** like it had a nose.

Then it morphed slightly, taking on more canine features.

'What the…?'

Jumping back onto Cream's shoulder, it pointed down the street.

"Come on, let's go!" Cream took Blaze's hand, and pulled her along. The girl was stronger than the feline had expected, but she soon let go, and they ran at a brisk pace down the main venue of the open air market. This wasn't the first marketplace Blaze had been in, here in the past, but it was much larger than anything in The Ring or elsewhere she had visited. Her stomach rumbled as her nose picked up the delectable smell of smoked fish, and she silently bemoaned dropping her lunch.

Following Cream closely, the two girls ducked off of Market Street and down past a row of shops. Looking up, Blaze could see rooms – apartments – over the store fronts. They looked to be pretty well appointed, with nice white facades, wide windows and small curious cranes hanging from the top. Maybe they were used to hoist up furniture or something? Rounding the corner, they kept running away from the nicer houses and into a noticeably less attractive area.

This part of the city reminded her more of The Ring. Blaze saw graffiti on a brick wall, something she'd never seen anywhere else in Knothole, and yellow tape cordoning off a three story building. A raised monorail track passed overhead, bypassing the neighborhood as it headed off to some place less seedy. Cream didn't seem particularly afraid of the bad part of town, such as it was, and Cheese led them further down the road, past an open chain link fence, and down into a concrete ditch – it had to be some sort of water channel to control flooding or something.

Cheese pointed, hopping on Cream's shoulder excitedly.

"Looks like we found the place," the bunny girl translated from Chao-ese. Up ahead and under an overpass formed by the road crossing the ditch, a handful of mobians were hanging out. They could only be what passed for punks this far 'Uptown' (as those in The Ring called it).

"If this is it, then let's go," Blaze said, not wanting to waste time.

"Hey, wait!" Cream called, running after the older female as she walked up to the small gang. Seeing the two girls approaching, the punks dropped what they were doing and pointed. Getting closer, it became clear that they were all dressed in a similar way: their fur was dyed green in many places, and they all wore sunglasses and beaten leather jackets. It wasn't a style Blaze had seen before in The Ring.

None of them seemed armed, either.

Unlike The Ring, firearms weren't allowed to circulate among the general population in Knothole. Blaze had even heard that there were acoustic sensors across the city that could detect the sound of gunfire and pinpoint the location. In a lot of places outside the city, one wore a weapon as a sign of independence and power. It meant that, even without super powers or anything like that; you could defend yourself and your property. Many gangs defined themselves by the weapons they carried, including them as part of a dress code. These boys lacked anything like that.

"Ok, boys," Blaze said, walking right up to them. "I believe you have something of mine."

"Ey! Ey! Something of yours, issit?" one of them asked, slurring his voice. Another one, a hedgehog maybe fifteen years old, slicked back his spines and leered at her. Another just chuckled.

"Blaze…" Cream started to say, but straightened up as she got closer. "You didn't have to run in like that…"

"Sorry," the feline replied, offering the other girl a polite nod. "But I don't like wasting time on nuisances like this."

"Nuisance?" the hedgehog boy chuckled. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a switchblade. "Dat sure ain't a nice thing ta say. Maybe you betta _apologize_."

"Ey, you girls made a mistake lookin' for trouble here!" the other one piped in.

Blaze just sighed, and placed her hands on her hips.

"I just want my necklace back," she said. "I don't care who stole it. Hand it over, and we'll all be happier."

"Necklace? Dat don't sound like something we'd have!"

More chuckling. "Yeah!"

"Maybe if you gimme a kiss, it'll jog my memory," the hedgehog added with another dry laugh.

Blaze made a disgusted face, and Cream giggled.

"You Scourges are always causing trouble," the younger girl said, pointing at them. "Why don't you make something of yourselves?"

The hedgehog sneered. "Tch! I don't gotta listen to this shit!"

His two compatriots surged towards Cream, but never got more than a few steps in. Blaze snapped her fingers, and a ball of flame appeared in midair with a flash of fire and light. Cream jumped back, startled, and the two punks fell right on their asses. Blaze beckoned the fire over, and it floated eerily until it sat in the palm of her hand. Tossing it up into the air, and then back into her hand, like one would a baseball, Blaze smirked.

"I think I know better ways to jog your memory…"

The hedgehog punk tried to put up a confident smile.

"Actually," he said, dropping his switchblade. "I just remembered. You know… like… just realized. Necklace! Right! We did find one of those!"

Blaze's eyes narrowed dangerously.

Backing up a few steps, the punk lifted a false lid on a nearby metal trash can. Inside were more than a few stolen items: a few wallets, a purse, a couple ear rings, and a good sized necklace. Retrieving it and holding it out, he smiled weakly. Blaze snatched it out of his hands with an angry growl.

Cream, however, didn't seem satisfied.

"How many poor mobians have you boys robbed, huh?" she frowned, appearing as disappointed as she was angry. "You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

"Ey!" one of the punks on the ground barked. "Come on!"

The hedgehog leader shrugged. "Everybody's gotta make a livin' somehow, sweetcheeks."

"You keep this up, you'll end up in a labor camp," Cream warned them. "Then you'll see how you 'make a living.' Clean up your act if you know what's good for you!"

The punks growled and grumbled, but didn't bother with a reply. Blaze was already walking off, and after a few seconds of indecision, Cream followed. They were a goodly distance away when they heard the punks calling out at them.

"Freak! FREEEAAAK!!" "Chaos Freak!" "Yeah, get lost, ey!"

Blaze's scowl deepened at the taunts. It wasn't the first time her curse had left that impression on people. Even as important as she was, even with her being the Guardian of the Emeralds, she knew many other whispered behind her back. She was different. She wasn't one of them. She wasn't normal. It wasn't until Silver that she had actually met someone like her; someone who _understood_…

"Wow! That was pretty neat!" Cream exclaimed, sounding chipper and happy again. She snapped her fingers, or tried to. Wearing gloves, they just made a dull thump instead of a proper snap.

'Neat?' Blaze wondered, staring at the girl. Holding her necklace, Blaze stared at it and carefully put it back on. It felt good to have it on her again, and the comforting feeling of the Sol Emerald sealed inside filled her with warmth.

"I guess you have chaos powers, huh?" the girl didn't seem put off, surprised, or perturbed by the fact.

"Um… yeah," Blaze admitted. "Kind of."

"You should talk to Mister Sonic, or… Mister Tails!"

'Those two?' Blaze remembered seeing them at the club. In fact, hadn't this girl been there too?

"Cream, do you know… ah, 'Mister Sonic' and 'Mister Tails?'"

"Yep!" Cream beamed, and the two of them started walking back to the market. "Only just recently, though. My sister is one of their closest friends. They're both really nice guys, and I bet they'd love to meet another chaos user!"

"I'll look them up some time…" Blaze lied. She didn't want anything to do with those two, at least not until Mephiles was with them and they had an idea of what to do to stop Iblis. Cream was all smiles, and Blaze found her mood rather infectious.

She never noticed Cheese, the little blue Chao, glaring at her necklace.

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER SEVEN:_

**Mastermind (A Dish Best Served Cold)**

* * *

It was nice to be able to talk to someone.

Blaze didn't say a lot for her part, but she seemed happy to listen, asking occasional questions about this or that. While they'd started off as total strangers, Cream was really starting to like the older girl. Blaze was confident in a way that she envied. She reminded Cream of Bunnie, her adopted sister, except less gossipy. She only wished Blaze would talk more about herself, but maybe she would after she'd opened up a bit more.

"But you've only met this Sonic person a few times."

"He's the world's greatest hero, and one of the original Freedom Fighters! I'd trust him with my life!"

Blaze didn't sound convinced. It was strange to meet someone who sounded wary or suspicious of Sonic the Hedgehog. Every mobian adored him! To many, he was the one who had brought hope back into their lives, and given their race a chance of survival. If not for Sonic, everyone knew that Dr. Eggman would have wiped the planet clean of life lots of times!

"He's certainly been involved in a lot of big monster fights and stuff," Cream admitted, fielding another soft spoken question. "But that's not exactly his fault. Dr. Eggman keeps releasing these things. Like Chaos and Shadow."

"Chaos?" Blaze asked, tentatively. "It that related to that… Chao of yours?"

Cream looked at the harmless little critter on her shoulder.

"Nah!" Cream decided. "Chao are cute and friendly! Chaos was this big water monster."

"I see," Blaze replied, though her tone of voice suggested she was still suspicious about the lack of a connection. Cream told her some more about Sonic and Tails, and about the adventures she'd heard they had. Blaze then asked what they were up to now, and Cream had to admit that she wasn't entirely sure. They'd both probably left to help in a battle somewhere.

For her part, Cream tried to coax a little out of the older girl about herself, too. Stopping to get some food, Cream could confirm that the quiet feline was only slightly more talkative on a full stomach. On impulse, the younger mobian had then taken her new friend to an ice cream shop, only to be rewarded with a stunned look on Blaze's face at all the flavors and colors available. That had been one of the first things she had learned: Blaze had never had ice cream before. She hadn't even known about it.

Which meant she had to be from Cat Country.

She was a cat, after all, and Cat Country was about as _rustic_ a place as one could find on the planet (to be polite). Treated to a cup of vanilla and chocolate, Blaze had finally let slip a few more things about her. She was apparently in the city with someone else… a boy, no less. She'd stammered more than a little when Cream had asked if this male friend of hers was also her boyfriend, which meant he probably was, in fact if not in name. She was also still very new to the area, and had come from very far away (which Cat Country definitely was).

More importantly, Cream learned a bit more about her as an individual. She seemed very responsible, and very driven to accomplish something important while in the town. Exactly what, she wouldn't say, but it seemed to involve meeting up with someone. Maybe it was one of her relatives, recently de-roboticized? But that was only a guess on Cream's part. Blaze didn't seem to personally know anyone around, but she seemed very self reliant and capable, having organized the trip to Knothole by herself with no help from her apparently somewhat clueless boyfriend.

By the time they reached the Chao Garden, Blaze was far more casual and friendly than she had been before. Unfortunately, she immediately clammed up when she saw someone new waiting for them at the store entrance. Cream immediately figured it was because of his appearance. After all, one didn't normally find reptilian mobians outside of Angel Island.

"Mister Vector!" She ran to the big fellow as he finished lugging a statue into place by the side of the door. Vector easily dwarfed her in size, even with her no longer being the little girl of a couple years ago. Cream gave him the biggest hug she could manage, but her arms barely made it around his chest.

"Cream!" he affectionately replied, tousling her hair. "How ya doin,' kid?"

"Just the usual!" she let him go and glanced at the statue. "Mom's putting you to work again?"

"Well, I, uh… I'll need a place to crash while I'm here, and…" He cleared his throat, but not the bush on his cheeks.

Cream giggled at his discomfort. Vector was a member of the Chaotix, and personal friends with the core Freedom Fighters. It'd have been more appropriate for him to stay at the Knothole Royal Retreat, but every time he came by Knothole he insisted on 'earning his keep' at Vanilla's Chao Farm. He had more than a little crush on the older woman, obvious enough for anyone to see. Cream's mother enjoyed his company, too, and Cream found him to be a fun guy, if a little quirky… especially his taste in music.

"Mister Vector," Cream introduced her new friend. "This is Miss Blaze. Miss Blaze, this is Mister Vector, a good friend of my family."

"Pleased ta meet ya," Vector said, extending a big gloved hand.

Blaze took his hand with a little hesitation. "Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise."

Sensing the mood turning a little downwards, Cream leaned closer to the statue Vector had been carrying. It was easily too heavy for most mobians to handle, but Vector was unusually strong. After Knuckles and Mighty (who were freakishly strong), Vector was the muscle of the Chaotix. Cream didn't know any of them too well, but like any Freedom Fighter, she'd learned about their allies on Angel Island. This statue was unusual in another way: it was carved to look like one of the mythical breeds of mobians.

"Is this a tanuki?"

"Huh! I think so," Vector responded, giving an exaggerated huff for all the work he'd put into relocating it. "You know, I saw a tanuki once. Espio said it was a raccoon, but I know what I saw."

"What's a tanuki?" Blaze asked, genuinely curious. It looked like a raccoon. Except it had a moustache. In fact, the statue kind of looked like a human in a 'tanuki suit' of some kind.

Strange.

"A tanuki is one of the mythical mobians," Cream happily explained. "Like the dragons. Or the kitsune."

"Kitsune ain't real," Vector corrected her.

"What about Tails?"

"Tails isn't a kitsune. He's just…" Vector didn't like saying it, but did anyway. "You know. A mutant."

"Have you seen anyone else on the planet with two tails?"

Blaze just watched the back and forth, slightly confused.

"Are you going to say dragons aren't real, too?"

"I've never seen one."

"What about Dulcy?"

"Never met her…."

"So you believe in tanuki, but not dragons or kitsune?"

"Or unicorns."

Sensing Blaze was curious, but not inclined to butt in, Cream elaborated, "As Mister Vector proves, mythical mobians are the breeds that may or may not exist, depending on who you ask. Supposedly, they live in far away zones that no one can get to, in castles in the clouds… or deep under the ground… or in space. Or under the sea!"

Blaze smiled a little at the absurd images.

"Really?" she asked, entertained if unconvinced.

"Yep!" the younger girl enthused. "I believe in them! Mobius is just full of magic, after all!"

Cream opened the doors to the store, and led them back inside. It wasn't just a Chao Garden – that was only part of the store – it was also a curios shop, where strange things from around Mobius could be found. There were totem poles from nearby Green Hill and a stained glass window pane from the Marble Zone. Some items were from further away, including woven artwork and pottery from Cat Country, and even a few human items from Overland.

Vanilla was already walking towards them, smiling beatifically. Cream knew she looked a lot like her mother; they had the same coloring, the same hair (except Vanilla's was longer and had more body), and even similar clothes. The biggest divergence on that last detail was her mother's preference in last century clothes (mobian fashion tended to follow human trends, but forty to fifty years late on the scene). Vanilla wore a full length dress that even covered her ankles, for Source's sake! She also wore a frock, which Cream knew hadn't been in style for at least _her_ lifetime.

"Cream!" Vanilla greeted her, and then noticed Blaze. "Oh my, who is this?"

"A friend I met earlier today," the daughter replied, guiding said friend closer to her mother. "Blaze, this is my mother, Vanilla."

"Well, it's nice to meet you. Welcome to the Chao Garden."

Blaze bowed her head respectfully. "Nice to meet you, too."

She then leaned a little closer to Cream. "Um… your father wasn't named Ice, was he?""

Cream slowly nodded her head. "There's no way I'm marrying a guy with a food based name. The puns must be stopped…"

"Why don't you join us for tea?" Vanilla suggested, seemingly oblivious to the whispered in-jokes "I was making some for Vector and myself, but we'd love to have company, wouldn't we?"

Vector nervously laughed, a toothy grin on his face. "Sure! No problem!"

"I… I guess that'd be ok…" Blaze, still a little uncomfortable around so many apparently friendly people, started to look around anxiously. "But I'll have to go soon. I have an …appointment."

"You mean a date," Cream corrected her, with a big smile.

Blaze blushed. "You could call it that…"

"Hey, Cream," Vector interrupted, sounding serious this time. "Can I ask you something? Real quick?"

"Sure…" Cream excused herself, and watched as her new friend followed her mother over to where a few cups of tea were being poured out. Business in the shop was usually pretty slow, so its curator generally took a liberal view of when to take breaks. Interesting company was as good an excuse as any.

"What's up?" she asked, not immune to the fact that Vector wanted to talk in private. That meant it was probably business.

"How much do you know about the Super Emeralds?" he asked.

The answer wasn't much. Just the basics she'd learned in training.

"The Super Emeralds are the seven Chaos Emeralds based on Angel Island. They're tied to the Master Emerald. Anyone using all seven can command the power of both that set and the Master Emerald itself. I think they used to be in Enerjak before he got de-powered. That's about it. Why?"

"Well…" Vector rubbed his long chin of a snout. "We kinda lost 'em."

"You lost them? Since when?" Cream asked, pointedly keeping her voice down. Anything involving the Chaos Emeralds, in any form, always led to trouble. As a Freedom Fighter, she knew all too well just how many crises had been caused by some villain or another trying to collect them.

"Have you told Sally?" she then asked.

"Yes. About a week ago. And no, not yet." He sighed at the look on her face. "I came to tell Sally myself. But we needed to keep this a secret."

"What happened?"

"Dunno. They just scattered on their own. Even the ones under lock and key. No one on the island has 'em… the Dark Legion's got no clue, the Brotherhood's stumped, and even those dingo don't seem to know. Or care."

"So you think they're on the mainland?"

"They have to be. We've split up to look for 'em. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Mogul again."

"Well, I haven't heard anything about this…" she cocked her head at him. "What?"

"You know," he pressed. "Do you…?"

"No we don't have one!" Cream tried to keep her voice down. "We **do not** have one. I swear to the Source. What would make you even think that?"

Vector frowned slightly, and looked away.

"I've… heard some things… and I know Tails likes to use 'em in his machines…"

"We can both ask him when he gets back, but I know for certain that he doesn't have one. He isn't that type of mobian and you know it."

"Right…" Vector nodded a few times, straightening up as he convinced himself. "Yeah, that's right. Man, I think our boy Knuckles is rubbin' off on me or somethin!"

Cream and Vector headed off to join Blaze and Vanilla, but a certain something didn't join them. Hopping from its perch on Cream's shoulder, Cheese landed in the shadows and quickly made its way to the Chao Garden. It was a small enclosed area, with a large tree, bushes and a small pond. Numerous other chao played in the shade, but stopped when Cheese began to approach. Speech was unnecessary among them – they were, in the end, One Body.

As one, they turned towards the store and the fleshlings within.

There was no need to worry. The Supers, like themselves, answered to The One Body. They would find their own flesh soon enough. As for Cheese, he had his own prey, and the sweet little thing was just _perfect_.

* * *

Silver waved to Blaze as the two met up in Knothole's Alexander Memorial Park.

"Hey!" he waved happily as she jogged over to him. "That a new jacket?"

"I kinda… went shopping…" Blaze muttered, a bit ashamed of the fact.

"Shopping?" Silver tilted his head, taking a good look at what she wore. It was definitely new, and in her favorite colors: violet and a sort of reddish pink. It actually looked…

"Heh! It looks good on you!" he stated, cheerfully oblivious to the pinkish tint on her cheeks. The evenings were a little chilly, and he tucked his gloved hands into his brown traveling cloak.

"Thanks," she said, and coughed. "Let's take a walk."

"Sure thing." He fell in step next to her. The park was nice, with the sun slowly setting. High above them, the city shield interacted with the dimming sun, making the sunset appear even larger and more vibrant than it actually was. Knothole's city park wasn't very large, but it was a nice enclosed space with some basic amenities and plenty of benches and room to toss or kick a ball or two around. A large metal statue of one of the deceased kings of the country stood firm and resolute in the center crossroads of the park.

"The ride we want will be leaving in fifteen minutes," Silver said, sounding casual. "Everything went as planned. The program worked perfectly. Shouldn't be any trouble. What about you?"

"Everything looks good," Blaze confirmed. "I took care of the arrangements earlier today and I have all the supplies we'll need. None of the major players are here. We'll be in and out before anyone can do anything about it."

Silver nodded, but Blaze could tell something was still bothering him.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The guy we're supposed to break out," Silver started to explain. "He's… Well, you'll see…"

* * *

Only two transports made up the convoy.

Like all prisoner transfers, it was handled at night, when the roads were clear. As a location with a large proportion of chaos empowered individuals, Knothole also had a prison (called "The Pen") for the more troublesome enemies of state encountered over the years: enemies like the Destructix, and more recently the notorious mercenaries Nack and Nic, and the traitor, Fiona. Unusually wily and dangerous, it was thought best to confine them near to where the one mobian that consistently defeated them tended to reside.

A recent transfer request saw one of those villains being moved from Knothole to the infamous Devil's Gulag Maximum Security Penitentiary. On the city airbase, an air transport idled on the tarmac with a high security escort. The offender in this case was an S-class "special" criminal, and the guards were equipped with specific weaponry designed to combat and contain any attempt at an escape. Likewise, the guards in the lead car and the nondescript van behind it were also armed to the teeth.

Silver stood in the middle of the road, rolling his shoulders.

The lights of the vehicles got closer, almost blinding him with their headlights. The two escorting police on motorcycles, upon seeing the obstruction in the road, started up their sirens. Silver held out his hands, body starting to glow a dull green. Closing his fists, he seized the bikes by the front wheels, twisting them and sending both careening into the sides of the road. He sincerely hoped both officers survived, but focused his attention on the lead car.

It had picked up speed, obviously intending to just drive right through him. Silver frowned and held out both hands, pushing against the vehicle… When it got close enough, it crashed into a field of invisible force, like a wall. The front deformed, and the back wheels spun as it tumbled through the air and over Silver's head. He didn't even turn around as it crashed back to earth behind him, tires screaming and metal screeching as it twisted and spun on the pavement.

Splaying his arms wide, Silver sneered as he tore the wheels of the armored van out of alignment. It fell forward, back wheels churning and driving the front into the asphalt. It eventually ground to a halt at Silver's feet, to the point where he rested the tip of his right shoe on the deformed and scratched up grill. No sooner did it stop, however, than Special Forces officers came out: of the front of the vehicle, and the back.

Focused as they were on him, they never saw Blaze lying in wait. Blossoms of fire erupted all around them. Panicked, they turned in all directions, looking for the source of the attack. Leaping through the flames like a demon, Blaze pounced, sending one flying after another. Silver, too, used the flames as cover. There was no shortage of ammunition for him – even with the inability to grab the officer's weapons out of their hands. Blaze emerged from the flames, motioning them to dance out of her way with one hand. In the other, she held one of the rifles the mobian troopers had held.

"I see what you mean about these," she said, tossing it at him.

"I told you." He caught it with his hands. "They resist chaos energy attacks. I've never heard of anything like it."

Silver examined the weapon. He'd heard about these: they were made out of some kind of exotic metal alloy a human named Nate Morgan developed. This alloy was resistant, or even immune (depending on the purity), to chaos energy based manipulation. It had something to do with Power Rings, but Silver was no scientist.

Despite his own powers, and his own lack of training in the use of firearms, Silver knew enough to be wary of guns of all sorts. There were chaos users, too, who used such weapons. It gave them a formidable versatility; they could attack conventionally or unconventionally, at range or close up. Luckily, most mobians who had chaos powers tended to rely on them entirely, and became useless if they were somehow taken away or exhausted.

Tossing aside the weapon, Silver followed Blaze around to the back of the armored van. Inside sat the man Mephiles had told them to free for the final stage of his plan. He was a strange sight, even imprisoned behind power-dampening fields and restraints. He had a horn growing out of his head, two long bat-like ears, and a flowing white beard left him bearing little resemblance to any normal mobian. Where one of his hands seemed normal enough, the other ended in a hooked claw. Appearance aside, he literally oozed with palpable evil.

And now they were setting him free.

Blaze powered down the restraint field, and blood red eyes focused on her, and then him. At first, he said nothing. They freed him anyway. When the chaos-proofed cuffs finally fell to the floor, Ixis Naugus rose to his full height. Silver looked up to him with no small amount of distaste. What was Mephiles thinking, having them set this guy loose?

"Whom should I thank for my release?" Ixis Naugus asked, striding out of confinement. With a gesture, coils of smoke formed around his shoulders, creating a flowing black cloak to conceal his body.

Silver couldn't help but feel they'd made a mistake. But Mephiles had warned them about the mercurial and frankly rather insane sorcerer. As bad as he was, they needed him, and he was still ten times better than having an invincible and immortal Iblis tearing across the planet.

"Mephiles," Silver said, simply. They'd been told it would be enough.

"Ohhh?" Naugus laughed heartily. "Mephiles is it? Well, I suppose I shouldn't do anything to you, if that's the case. And here I thought you would make such wonderful servants…"

Blaze and Silver exchanged a cautious look.

"Thanks, I guess," she finally said. "Mephiles said you'd help us. We have the Scepter of…"

"Silence, girl. If you did as **he** commanded, then you will have all I need to perform the ritual." Ixis tilted his head back to look at them over his shoulder. "Where are we to go? I have much to see to now that I am free, and a great many who must suffer for my imprisonment! It will take time to properly savor the agony I shall bring upon them."

"Transportation is my department," Silver said, holding out his hand. Blaze grasped her necklace, and the diamond Sol Emerald materialized. Naugus raised an eyebrow at this, but nothing else. He turned around, anticipating what Silver was about to do. Soon, they were all in arm's reach.

Holding the gem in his hand, Silver closed his eyes and did what he had been told to do.

"Chaos Control!"

* * *

Sonic was bored.

He couldn't help it. There was nothing to **do** anymore. The Babylon Rogues were in custody and the _Blue Typhoon_ was now lingering over the area along with a few other airships. Additional reinforcements had flown in, and Sonic could see two or three smaller airships flying around outside, through one of the faux windows in Tails' ready room.

With nothing to do, he just chilled for a bit. Luckily, the _Blue Typhoon_ had a small supply of recreational equipment, and he had borrowed a few things to help kill the time. Tails had fixed a gamestation up to one of the screens and even played a few rounds of Kart racing with his true-blue best bud. But then the fox had quickly bowed out, claiming that he had a lot of work to do. That was always the problem with Tails. When they weren't on an adventure, he insisted on doing things. He had to keep _busy_.

Maybe he found it fun?

Tuning the guitar in his hands, Sonic glanced over at Tails' desk, where his little bro seemed to be entirely engrossed in a mixture of paperwork and his computer. Gloved fingers danced over holographic keys at a maddening pace. Sonic smirked. His own typing was more hunt-and-peck. It took forever to write anything! Sonic considered it what he had thought about before: as absurd as it sounded, maybe Tails **did** enjoy work. Maybe he was a, what was the term? Workaholic?

It was certainly true that the little guy disdained just hanging out and doing nothing. Even Knuckles, stuck up as he was, could appreciate some leisure time at the beach or just staring at the clouds. Tails was always building something, or studying something, or recording something… how could he keep it up? To Sonic, that sort of lifestyle sounded about as horrible a fate as anyone could suffer. Life was about taking it easy and enjoying yourself!

Softly strumming his electric guitar, Sonic closed his eyes and felt a nice beat coming on. He's had dreams, from time to time, about being in a rock band and traveling the country. Sometimes he didn't recognize the others he was with, but other times he imagined his friends came along with him. Tails would be on drums, Knuckles on bass guitar (though how he managed it with his gloves remained a mystery), Mina would sing Nicole would literally be their synthesizer and electric piano, and Sally would be their manager.

They'd hit the towns, lifting peoples' spirits after the war was over, partying and having cool adventures and stuff… wouldn't that be cool? So much cooler than being stuck in some stuffy castle all day when Sally became Queen. He snickered at that. Plus, maybe he could hire Amy as a bouncer or something! Of course, she'd probably attack any groupies that tried to get backstage, so – as funny a thought as it was – it probably wasn't exactly _wise_.

Sonic strummed out a quite little tune, fingers running easily up and down the guitar as he played. He was self taught, but he'd heard that he was pretty good. Of course, he could barely read sheet music, but the best tunes came from the heart, not by reproducing some scribbles on a piece of paper. Tails never minded the noise, so Sonic squinted his eyes and started on a riff. It was feeling good.

Yeah – this wasn't so bad!

Playing a bit more, Sonic tried to tweak a few parts he wasn't entirely happy with and took a minute to think about putting some words to the music. He wasn't exactly great when it came to that part; he found it hard to really put words to how he felt or any of that junk… at least without sounding corny. Writing a song for Sally would be pretty sweet though. It'd probably make up for just about anything she had a problem with him doing over the last year. Sitting back against the wall on Tails' fold out bed, Sonic tried to think of what he could sing to her.

Nothing came to mind (that didn't already make him cringe).

'Maybe I could just play something without words in it? She'd probably think it was deep and emotional and stuff,' he thought, feeling quite clever about the idea. 'Hey, that's actually a pretty good idea. I bet it would work, too!'

Fiddling around for a while longer, half committed to the premise, Sonic soon found his thoughts straying again. Just sitting back and playing where his heart took him was easy, but planning and thinking up what to play was a lot harder. In fact, it was starting to sound suspiciously like _work_. Eventually growing a bit tired of it, Sonic leaned further back to stare at the ceiling for a while. In the silence, all he could hear was the distant rumble of the _Blue Typhoon's_ powerful engines, and the steady tap-tap of Tails typing.

"Hey, Tails."

The fox took a second to reply as he finished typing something.

"What's up?"

"What do you think you're going to do after we finally beat Robotnick?"

Tails took a second to think it over before replying, "Well… I guess I'll probably take Uncle Chuck's place as Minister of Science."

"So I'll see you around the palace, huh?"

"I guess. Either that or…"

"Or what?" Sonic prompted, turning his head so he could see his old friend where he sat at his desk. Tails had one hand over the keyboard, and another cupping his cheek.

"I guess I'd like to see my people. At least once."

"You're not going to stay there are ya?"

"No… I don't think so," the kitsune admitted. "There are things about them… about me… that I'm not totally comfortable with."

Sonic chuckled. "That'll piss Tempest off, I bet!"

Tails didn't respond to that comment, at least.

"Then again," Tails began, sounding more amused. "I hear I've got an arranged marriage or two to look up."

"Plenty of girls down here, you know," Sonic reminded him.

Another pause.

"Hey… Sonic…"

"Sup?"

"You ever… you ever really do it?"

"Do what?" Then he got the inflection. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," Tails said, turning his head to face his blue idol. "You've dated more than a few girls. I've seen you making out with Sally and Fiona. How far did you actually ever get?"

"That's a kinda weird question…"

"Come on," Tails pressed. "If you can't tell me, then who can you tell?"

"I probably shouldn't tell anyone, since I don't like getting kicked in nuts." Sonic sighed, relenting. "Anyway, yeah, I've done it."

"With Sally?"

"… yeah…"

"And Fiona?"

"Yeah. Once. Actually twice, depending."

"Amy?"

Sonic just scoffed. "As if she isn't clingy enough already! Besides, the last thing I need is for her to claim she's pregnant or something… I'm not even twenty! The words 'marry me' are the last thing I want to hear!"

"Huh." Was all the response he got from the two tailed fox. Tails seemed to be thinking about something and weighting whether to say it aloud or not.

"What about you?" Sonic quickly asked with a smirk. Since they were on the topic, it was only natural that the door swing both ways. "Wasn't there that girl in Downunda?"

"No. Nothing happened. We were only friends…" Tails hesitated again. "There was one girl, but…"

"But what?"

"It wasn't anything _real_. All we did was a little kissing anyway. It's best to just forget about it." He looked down at a few papers on his desk, mind straying back into work-only territory.

"Any girls you got your eyes on then? Come on! Spill it!"

"Things are different between you and me, Sonic," Tails explained, but at least he put aside the work as he did so. "It's… complicated. You know I ran into Fiona the other day?"

"Sure. I remember that."

"She set off this… impulse. It's very disconcerting. And then Rouge…." Tails tried to go back to his work. "The less I think about it the better."

"Rouge, huh?" Sonic asked, now far more interested than he had been than before. He knew about Tails' old crush on Fiona, and the trouble it had caused them in the past. But Rouge? That was new.

"You sure know how to pick em, little bro!" Sonic announced with a laugh.

"It isn't me picking them," the fox interrupted. "It's this animal programming in my genes! I don't need… I don't **want** a girlfriend. I don't **want** my life to be more complicated than it already is. I should just…!"

But he never finished the sentence.

"Just what?" Sonic asked, curious.

"Nothing…" Tails said in a small voice. "I never gave much thought to all this before… it's just kinda frustrating. And look at all the trouble you've been through with Sally and Mina and Amy and all those other girls!"

"It **is** a lot of trouble," Sonic agreed, but just as quickly, disagreed. "But it's kinda nice, too."

"Source alive…" Tails rolled his eyes. "So what should I do? What would you do if you were me?"

Sonic shrugged. "Just run with it."

"That's your answer to everything!"

"What can I say? It works." Sonic shrugged again, and pulled himself up off the bed. "If you like a girl, go after her. It doesn't matter why you like her."

"You know that every time I take your advice, I end up in trouble, right?"

Sonic offered a lazy, confident smile. "Not every time!"

Tails shook his head in exasperation. "You want to catch a few laps around the ship before we eat?"

"Now you're talking!"

So the two headed to the uppermost deck of the ship, unlocked a pressurized door and took in the brisk air two kilometers above sea level. There was a track around the ship, designed specifically for running, with railing along the edges, and despite the cold and the thin air the two mobians started with a burst of speed that would put an Olympian to shame.

Circuit after circuit they raced, jockeying at corners and laughing as one passed the other, only to get passed a couple seconds later. Seeing his best friend smiling again, and enjoying himself in something as pure and wonderful as the exhilaration of speed, Sonic remembered when he had first learned that the little fox could… almost… keep up with him.

Tails was the first mobian he had met with abilities like Sonic's own. Unlike Sally and Rotor and Bunnie and Antoine, who he had known slightly longer, Tails understood what it meant to revel in the speed and the exhaustion of the run. He understood how exciting it was to go faster and faster, to push your body to the limits of endurance. He understood the feeling of accomplishment and pride that came from slowing to a stop, trying to catch your breath, knowing you'd given it your all: 100 percent. Tails understood that racing alone wasn't anywhere near as awesome as having someone alongside you.

There was never any other mobian on the planet that could be the kind of friend Tails was. He was someone who he could race with, joke with, and rely on. He could _keep up_. Even if he spent too much time working, and too little time enjoying life (as Sonic saw it), they were two mobians literally made for each other. Really: it was a good thing Tails was a guy and not a girl, or things would've gotten really awkward really fast.

"Yes!" Sonic pumped his fists in celebration. Naturally, he'd won. Tails was good, but he was **best**. "If only we had a sign post or something!"

"I'll look into installing one…" Tails said between heaving breaths, his hands on his knees. "I thought… I had you…"

Sonic smirked, giving a victory sign with two fingers. "Close but not quite!"

The blue hedgehog let out a deep breath and watched as the cloud wafted through the air. He wasn't quite as short on breath as the competition, but the thin air and the cold had really started to tire him out. Tails had an advantage here: he was more used to high places like this, and his fur was thicker. Hedgehogs normally didn't handle extremes of temperature too well, Sonic himself being the great exception. Letting out another breath, Sonic leaned dangerously against the railing and took in the sight.

The world lay sprawled out before them.

"Cool isn't it?" Tails asked, leaning against the opposite end of the track and one of the ship's bulkheads. "I love being up here."

For a few minutes, the two just stood and watched, catching their breath and enjoying the view. It felt good. Sonic didn't really know about the problems and stuff that Tails had to deal with, but his little bro was still there. The stuff from before: seeing all those horded ring monitors and shields and stuff in Facility-7, the _Blue Typhoon_, and the threats made towards the Babylon Rogues… they'd all around a sense of worry in the back of his mind. But his little buddy was still in there, just waiting for the time when he wouldn't have to worry about fighting and the war.

Sonic had a new idea.

When the war was over, he'd take Tails (and maybe Knuckles, if that bonehead could get away from the Emerald for a while) and go on a long victory lap around Mobius. They'd race and relax and visit old friends and see the world like it should be – at peace. They'd joke and tease Knuckles about Julie-Su, about himself and Sally, and they'd get Tails to chase as much tail as foxly possible. For just a little while, they wouldn't have a care in the whole damn world.

* * *


	21. Mastermind ii

Midnight.

The ruins were perched on a hill top, decaying slowly over the centuries. Once a noble castle, it had fallen into disuse, disgrace, and disrepair. Cursed by the Royalty of the House of Acorn, the parapets were lifeless now, covered with dark creeping vines and colossal spider webs that ran like tents from wall to wall. A stray bat, caught in one, struggled as tiny venomous arachnids swarmed over it.

Blaze repressed a shiver as she lit the incense and the last of the candles. Everything was as Mephiles had planned. The night was just as he wanted, on the day that he wanted. They had retrieved the items he needed to manifest fully in this time and place, and they had the great sorcerer to do the deed itself. Everything had gone perfectly. Even the Babylon Rogues had fulfilled their part in the plan.

She stood in the center of it all.

Vevelsburg Keep is been abandoned for a long time, and now even the old town below held nothing but ghosts and memories. Blaze did not consider herself superstitious, but there was definitely an eerie presence about the place. It had once been the headquarters for a treacherous army that plunged the country here into war. Spiteful spirits were said to roam the ruins; hundreds of witches had been imprisoned within the walls, and many had been executed by drowning in the courtyard where she now stood. Beneath the castle, crypts wormed through the hillside.

'Remember everything Mephiles has done to help fight Iblis,' Blaze thought to herself, and not for the first time. 'We wouldn't be here if not for him.'

Blaze heard a grunt of effort, and saw Silver carefully backing up into the courtyard. He was holding a stone sarcophagus in midair, moving it into the center of the circular atrium. The flames she had just lit flickered and dimmed for a moment before growing in intensity. With one last heave, Silver lowered the multi-ton tomb to the ground and backed off, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

"Well, that's the last my work tonight!" he exclaimed with palpable relief.

"I'm done, too," Blaze seconded, lighting the last candle with a snap of her fingers.

"Yesss…. This shall serve…"

Ixis Naugus emerged from the shadows, his dark cloak literally disappearing into the poorly lit areas that littered the castle grounds. He slowly paced around, double checking their work and making sure everything was in place. He kept most of his body covered, hiding it beneath his cloak. It did nothing to conceal his monstrous visage.

"We've done our part," Blaze announced, crossing her arms and letting a trace of annoyance seep into her tone of voice. "It's up to you now."

Naugus laughed. It was a grating, rough sound, like three voices at once.

"First, the altar…" he gestured with his somewhat normal hand, and a rocky pillar rose out of the ground, splitting aside stone and mortar. Clenching his fist, Ixis' magic then split the stone, releasing a jet of flame, a trickle of water, and a blast of air from each crack in its surface.

"Now, the Emerald," the wizard's eyes fell on Blaze. The feline was already holding the diamond Sol Emerald, and taking a few steps she placed it on the altar.

"And lastly… the Scepter of Darkness…" Ixis reached into his cloak, and held out the inky black item. A dark mist flowed along its surface, writhing and bubbling. The dark master of the Ixian Arts entered the sacred circle drawn around the tomb, gesturing with both hands and muttering infernal curses. Tendrils of flame rose from the candles, mixing with the air and the smoke. Earth and stone split, forming a pattern of dark lines centered around the great granite sarcophagus.

"Let the Scepter open the way, binding dead flesh and immortal soul once more!" Naugus flew open his cloak, revealing his full form. Holding the scepter above his head, the dark mist twisted and grew, mixing with the smoke as it drifted towards the ancient coffin.

"Let that which fell in hatred walk once more!" Ixis roared, and a thunderclap shook the cloudless sky. A bright light engulfed the Sol Emerald, and teardrops of fire began to fall from the sky.

"Assume your true form, False and Forgotten King! Arise, Mephiles!"

And then, at the mention of the name, water tricking from the alter turned crimson. Distant howls came from below the abandoned keep, almost imperceptible at first, but then louder, forming a damned chorus. Within the swirling storm that encompassed the courtyard, the lid of the sarcophagus finally split with a great ear-shattering crack.

"Arise. Mephiles. We who know your name call you back."

Another great crack, this one perpendicular to the first, split the lid in four. A wave of force rippled through the air, blowing out the candles and the fire, and dispelling the storm of ash and smoke that had drowned out the atrium. Gone were the howls muffled by stone and earth. Abruptly, unexpectedly, all was silent.

Then black smoke drifted up from the split tomb.

Slowly, one of the slabs of stone fell to the side with a thud, revealing a black hand; mostly chalk white bone and ruined cloth. Black inky flesh flowed over it, providing just enough substance to animate what would otherwise be still in the grave. Another slab fell, and then a third and fourth. Finally, Mephiles began to emerge. He was only partly formed, but what little had pulled itself together confirmed its identity. Both Blaze and Silver recognized him: the black quills, the hedgehog ancestry, the bright green eyes…

"Now, Mephiles the Dark…" Ixis Naugus let loose a mad grin, eyes wide with delight. "You will serve me!!"

Without warning, jade colored pillars of crystal shot out of the ground: four of them, crushing Mephiles' form between them at their apex. Ixis laughed as creepers of green crystal infiltrated the dark form, starting with the fingers, the arms, the ends of the ears, and the tips of the spines.

"Yes, you will serve me well, petty godling! With you, it shall be child's play taking the Source of All for my own!" Ixis quickly held out his hand to the now tensing Silver and Blaze, assailing them with a hailstorm of frozen wind and ice. He didn't have to beat them; only delay them a few moments longer.

"Ah." It was no scream. It was a sigh.

Ixis turned his head, back to Mephiles. The crystal had infused much of his body, but something was wrong. Green dyed crystal began to turn a shade of blue, cracking and splintering. In moments, the four pillars that contained the creature crumpled and warped.

"What is this…?" Naugus extended his clawed hand but staggered before he could do anything. Mephiles was no longer floating in the air. Instead, crystalline growths had begun to emerge from the wizard's palm, growing out of his control.

"How nice it is… to be free…"

Naugus pivoted, hearing the voice coming from just behind. Mind racing for a spell, Ixis cursed instead. His hand felt numb, and he couldn't concentrate. With a sick splatter, a jagged lance of crystal tore out the back of his hand, and then his misshapen claw. The lattice curved behind his back, pinning his arms in place and stretching them out. Choking in pain and surprise, the last master of the Order of Ixis gasped as his feet left the ground and ice cold pinpricks ran up his back.

Mephiles looked over his shoulder at Ixis Naugus, the sorcerer now crucified on a cross of ice blue crystal. Flexing his fingers, the mouth-less black corpse rebuilt the last of his body, replacing crystal with ink black flesh. It did feel nice – having a body again, after so very long. In the end it had proven to be quite prudent, sealing his soul in an inanimate object. Long after what should have been his natural death, the will and desires of Mephiles had survived.

Holding out his hand, the Scepter of Darkness flew back into his grasp.

Within the Scepter, a portion of him remained, and would remain, eternally. That had always been his intention: to wait and bide his time and power within the Scepter, giving him all of creation to assemble what was needed to release his beloved Iblis and create Solaris. But this was early. He had not yet had the time to build enough power to manifest in the living world.

It quickly became clear what had happened. For centuries he had slept within the ancient metal, oblivious to the world around him. After centuries of effort, centuries of carefully accruing Chaos Energy, had he been able to manifest enough to speak to those few willing minds. However, he must have emerged too late. Someone else, **some fool**, had released Iblis early, making it impossible to give birth to the God, Solaris. Mephiles could imagine the grief of his future self, presented with this situation. To find out, after centuries of work, that Iblis, His Iblis, was loose upon the world! To realize that centuries of waiting had been too late!

Terrible.

Facing the still stunned Silver and Blaze, Mephiles felt his bitterness wash away. There was no point in it. His future self had found a way to send these children back in time. He could feel the power in them: they were creatures of Chaos. They had heard him, and heeded him. It was unlikely that they came back in the past simply to help him, so it was logical that they were here expecting him to help them… probably to destroy the 'monster' Iblis.

It was easy to see what his future self planned. It was too late to merge with Iblis in the future, so he sent the children back to awaken him in the past, when Iblis was released. Here and now, he would become Solaris, while the remnant of him in the Scepter continued to sleep until the time he awoke and repeated the process. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

"My… friends…" he said the word with neither contempt nor feeling. His voice was empty. Cold. Even as he bowed politely to them. "You have my gratitude."

"Mephiles," Blaze spoke up. "The other you, he said… you'd know why we are here."

"Of course I know," the current Mephiles declared. "You must be here to stop Iblis from being released."

Blaze and Silver exchanged hopeful glances.

"I knew it!" Blaze added, emphatically. Mephiles could see the hope in her eyes. The trust. Even the pale hedgehog, who at first seemed wary, now seemed hopeful and expectant.

Mephiles silently congratulated his future self. These two were perfect, totally fooled, and all had gone as planned. Very soon, they would see Iblis released, and in that moment, Mephiles would fulfill his end of the bargain and rid the world of the mindless menace.

Just… not in the way they expected.

"Ugh! Curse… you…"

Mephiles turned his attention back to the still crucified Ixis Naugus. Blood ran down the impaled wizard's arms and legs. What was left of his black cloak swung in the breeze, like tatters from a skeleton.

"Curse me?" Mephiles asked, amused. "Curse yourself. As death comes slowly for you, believe me, _you will curse yourself_. Now, be silent."

Naugus' lips parted, but not to speak. Jaw quivering, icy crystals filled his mouth, making it impossible to breathe or speak. No longer interested in the magician, Mephiles gently picked up the Sol Emerald on the ritual altar. Its power flowed into him… it was a strange thing, different than a normal Chaos Emerald. It felt cooler and less forgiving, but immensely powerful all the same.

Through it, Mephiles also felt a disturbance nearby.

"Someone watches us," he hissed, and beckoned Silver and Blaze closer. "Come. Let us leave. We have much to do."

"What about…" Silver inclined his head towards Ixis. "Him?"

"The dead to go Hell," Mephiles replied, as if explaining things to a child. "They do not come with us."

Blaze didn't argue the point. "There's nothing you can do, Silver. Besides, he did try to betray us… Imagine if he had succeeded?"

Silver just nodded.

"Chaos." Mephiles held up his hands: the Scepter in one, the Emerald in the other. "Control."

And then they were gone.

* * *

"You know, I think you sound a little different…"

"Than the Prime?"

Sally walked with the hologram down the halls of the ship. She'd been talking with the crew and trying to get a better feel for the mobians who operated the mighty _Blue Typhoon_. They both were and weren't what she expected. The Princess was used to working with other Freedom Fighters. They were typically young, eager, highly motivated and very independent. That latter trait was of particular importance, as the majority of their operations were planned and executed on their own initiative. Freedom Fighter command didn't micromanage them.

Freedom Fighters typically stood in contrast to the older mobians conscripted into the formal MAF – the mobian armed forces, ran by her father the King. The Armed Forces stressed discipline and obedience, to both political and military superiors. Most would have made poor Freedom Fighters, at least in her view, as they tended to require direction to do much of anything. Many were former robians who were simply switching masters but fulfilling the same roles on the same battlefields.

The crew of the _Blue Typhoon_ seemed different.

They had an undeniable and highly vocal _pride_ in serving on the ship. Many were young, but highly motivated, however that was also tempered by a well drilled obedience Freedom Fighters generally lacked. When she had asked them how they felt about their posting, or about their jobs, most had readily declared that the 'Blue Typhoon is the finest ship on Mobius!' and that 'It was an honor to crew her!' A little disturbingly, a few (male) crew members seemed to be personally infatuated with the Nicole AI that ran the ship. Sally had seen posters of her in a variety of racy poses in crew quarters and personal lockers.

Said AI, fully clothed, also seemed to exist in multiple places. When Sally had checked out the ship's engineering section, the Nicole escorting her had started explaining various features and functions, even as an identical hologram of her worked with two technicians near the power core. It was sort of strange, seeing two of her, with the same voice, holding two different conversations at the same time. On the _Blue Typhoon_, she was everywhere, so maybe she _was_ the ship in all but name.

"My voice _is_ slightly different," Nicole readily admitted. "I have modulated it to sound slightly more feminine."

"I thought so," Sally said, then asked, "But why?"

"You've noticed that the majority of the crew is male. On my eleventh day of operation, I noticed that many of the crew were empathizing with me. I determined that this anthropomorphization was a natural consequence of using an AI with a female avatar. In following my directives to streamline ship operations and improve loyalty, I changed my voice to sound more appealing, thus making the crew more protective of me."

"Yet you still look like Nicole. The Nicole I have."

"Like the Prime, I find this image to be aesthetically appealing."

Sally nodded, getting what she meant. The two Nicoles had the same taste in appearance, but one had changed her voice slightly because she had a different job. The Princess was still sort of getting used to that. As an AI, Nicole was inherently logical and pragmatic, and the things that 'bothered' her usually weren't the sort of things that troubled an organic life form.

"You're so similar to her, but different, too," Sally concluded.

"You were expecting us to be identical copies?"

"I guess. You are the same person… or intelligence, right?"

"We are 99.6 percent similar in base programming," Nicole explained, nodding cheerfully to a crew member as they passed in the hall. The uniformed male nodded back respectfully to both females, one real and the other virtual.

"99.6 percent; that's basically identical," Sally stated.

"Yes. But that point four percent makes a big difference. Take yourself and… Amy Rose for example. The two of you are 99.7 percent similar, on the genetic level." Nicole paused, to let that sink in with the Princess. Genetics was a relatively new science among mobians.

"So," Sally quickly understood the comparison. "You and Nicole Prime are more different than Amy Rose and me."

"In a way," Nicole didn't go overboard with the comparison. "As a warship, the changes in my programming only affect my thinking and not my 'body,' as I have none. For example, I am programmed to be more aggressive than the Prime: If I hack into an enemy system, I don't want to retrieve data. I want to shut that system down as quickly as possible. The Prime has no inclination or desire to initiate combat, whereas I have no problems slashing and destroy enemies in the air and on the ground."

"You're more like a sister than a copy, then," Sally speculated.

"A sister?" Nicole quizzically tilted her head, expressing some confusion about the concept. "Perhaps. I hadn't thought of that! I will have to share your observation with her next time we update."

Sally giggled lightly. "Glad I could give you two something to talk about!"

Nicole also laughed, demurely holding her hand over her mouth. Sally immediately noticed it as another difference between the two. Her Nicole had learned to laugh almost two years ago. She had been unsure at first, but after 'incorporating humor into her heuristic programming' she had developed a distinctly more boisterous and less restrained laugh. When in holographic form, she never _entirely_ covered her mouth with her hand like that.

"How many Nicoles do you think there'll be?" Sally asked, as the thought suddenly came to her. "Isn't Tails planning to build more ships?"

"A Nicole is planned to be on board all command-class capital ships," the AI confirmed. "However, they may not have the degree of integration I do. Initially, many mobians were wary of investing so much power in the hands of a synthetic or artificial life form. Luckily, Tails demanded it, and the _Blue Typhoon_ was his project to manage as he pleased. If I perform well, then my other… sisters will be as fortunate as I am."

Nicole made another small laugh, this time at a joke of her own.

"I think I'll even envy the Nicole who merges with the Egg Carrier. She'll be the most powerful of us all, but at least I'll be the first."

"I'm sure they'll learn a lot from you."

Nicole's smile broadened at that. "I suppose so. Thank you."

Sally felt very relaxed around this Nicole, even if she was a warship that sort of sacred the technology conscious Princess. She could definitely imagine a lot of people being wary about giving power to an AI, when their enemy used a horde of robots and AIs.

It didn't help that mobians were very skeptical of high technology. It went back to their nature loving roots. They had had industry and capitalism imposed on them by fiat in an effort to remain competitive with their human rivals. Left to their own devices, mobian society would probably by a few hundred years behind what it was. Now, despite their society changing to adapt to the times, their culture and inclinations still tended to be anti-technology, anti-industry, and hostile to the mercantilist commercial accumulation of wealth and capital. All three tended to hurt and change the world mobians knew and loved.

Tails was different.

Like Rotor, he loved technology, and believed it could benefit everyone. He saw it as a means of empowerment, and a way to make the world more efficient. If it caused a problem, that was because the ones using the technology were bad. Rotor was more conservative – he had eventually come to see some technology as too dangerous for common use, including war weapons. Sally had heard them debating the point many times: Rotor claimed that, if not for industry and the weapons of war, then Robotnick would never have been able to seize power; Tails argued that it was politics that enabled Robotnick to take power, since he wouldn't have been able to do so without resources and capital.

Had it been any other AI aside from Nicole, Sally would have been more worried. She tended to agree more with Rotor, that a lot of technology and 'progress' came with inherently negative side effects. The burning of fossil fuels polluted the skies and waterways of Mobius; how could that be justified, simply because it provided an easy source of power? Mechanization and heavy industry did the same, simply to produce cheaper goods, with the added caveat of putting traditional cottage industry out of business.

What was the unseen cost of efficiency?

So: she considered herself "open" to possibilities, but always somewhat wary of them. AIs were one of the things she had concerns about. Nicole was like a sister to her. She had been there for her in good times and the worst times, offering advice and comfort, and Nicole had learned and grown so much from her interactions with Sally and Sonic and all their friends. But Nicole was special. The other AIs out there, like Metal Sonic and the Tails Dolls… those were dangerous. Programmed for evil, they were undying reflections of their master. And unlike an organic mind, they could never overcome what they were born to do.

That was scary. Even aside from the idea of a viral artificial intelligence, infiltrating the computers and information systems the world relied on, there was the fact that most AIs were the enemy. She'd heard that the dingo and echidna had a few tame ones, much simpler than Nicole, but what was to stop them from going out of control? Nicole had proven herself, but what was so stop even her from calculating that she was far more efficient than slow, fragile, stupid mobians who surrounded her? Sally was sure Nicole would never become like that, but who could vouch for another less scrupulous AI with similar capabilities?

"Is something wrong?" Nicole asked, as if reading her thoughts. Mostly likely, a facial recognition algorithm had read Sally's expression. And well, too.

"I was just wondering…" Sally tried to sound casual about the question she felt the sudden need to ask. "Does it bother you that you might be killing other AIs?"

Nicole blinked. "Bother me?"

"Yes," Sally elaborated. "I've read that Robotnick uses AIs on his ships. Those Tails Dolls. Does it make you feel… bad or guilty maybe, killing them?"

Nicole's expression didn't change, but something in her eyes did.

"I don't see a distinction between shooting down an enemy fighter pilot and blowing up an enemy ship run by an AI," she finally said, with no small amount of conviction. "Any life lost is regrettable, of course, whether it is mobian, human, or _otherwise_. But I exist to destroy my enemies, not to show them compassion."

It was a somewhat sobering answer. Sally could glean two important things from it. The first was that this Nicole saw AIs as living, sentient beings, equal to organic life forms. That was probably only natural, and Sally couldn't exactly argue against it, but it was also a little troubling. Sentient life forms did not like having their freedom restricted. How long would it be before the Nicole AIs began to feel like they were being used for the war, while not being given any rewards for it? They wouldn't exactly be free if the war was won tomorrow.

The second was that this Nicole was, at its core, a warship. She was designed just for that. It was no surprise that she had been adjusted to better fit the role – there was no point in building a warship and giving it a pilot who couldn't bear to fire its guns. But a mobian who could fire that ship's guns could also go on to some other job in peace time. When the war was over, would the Nicole warships simply linger, waiting for the next conflict? Wasn't that asking for trouble?

Another thought that also occurred to her was that this Nicole was as proud of being a warship as her crew was to pilot her.

"You're worried that I will sympathize with the Eggman AIs," Nicole-Typhoon speculated. "I believe that to be a common sentiment, but I will prove myself in combat. I know which side I'm fighting for."

"Sorry," Sally apologized, honestly a little ashamed to be doubting her. Of course, she had been worried about more than just that, but her skepticism only made her feel worse. The situation was complicated.

"There's nothing to be sorry for," the AI replied with a gentle smile. "Centuries ago, the Kingdom of Acorn integrated its armed forces, allowing all the different breeds to fight together under one flag. I hope to follow in that tradition. That's my dream."

Sally smiled back. "I like the sound of that."

Finishing their long walk around the ship, Sally saw that Nicole had led her to an airlock. With perfect timing, it opened, and a rush of air blew Sally's hair back and forth. A somewhat frazzled Sonic and Tails emerged, laughing about some joke she hadn't been able to overhear. Sally could guess what they'd been doing: running like madmen in the thin, freezing atmosphere outside.

"Hey, Sal!" Sonic walked up to her, totally blasé.

"Sonic! Were you running out there?" The question was, without a doubt, rhetorical. "Have you lost your mind?! What about altitude sickness? What about dehydration?"

"Ah, whatever!"

"And Tails, you should know better!"

The two tailed fox, who had been (any normally was) inclined to try and sneak out when a scolding was heading his way, nipped this one in the bud.

"Actually," he said, holding up a finger to emphasize his point. "Sonic and I don't seem to suffer from altitude sickness."

"Ha! Sweet!"

"What do you mean?" Sally sounded a bit confused.

"Didn't you tell her about that time you fell out of the First Death Egg?" Tails asked, not seeing Sonic waving his hands frantically in a desperate last-second bid to keep that little bit of trivia under wraps.

"You… fell… out of the Death Egg?!" Sally had gone from concerned to livid. "Of all the reckless things I've heard…!"

"In my defense," Sonic replied. "I was Super at the time."

"Yes. And then your rings ran out," Tails reminded him.

The blue hedgehog's response died on his lips.

"Oh yeah."

Sally, slack jawed, couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You told me Tails flew up and got you!"

"I did," Tails responded on Sonic's behalf. "But the original Tornado biplane I used didn't have a pressurized cockpit. Amazingly, our rapid ascent and descent left us unfazed. I noticed something similar when we were on Angel Island in Ice Cap Zone. We just don't get altitude sickness."

"We do get thirsty, though. Very thirsty," Sonic finally noticed Nicole. "Hey, Nicole! Got a water fountain or anything around here?"

The AI nodded, and pointed down the hall.

"That'd be dehydration. Which can be a problem," Tails admitted and offered Sally an innocent smile. "Don't worry! This is no big deal. Trust me."

He'd used that line a few times, now.

'Trust me' indeed.

"I guess you're right…"

Sally calmed, reminding herself that Sonic and Tails weren't normal mobians. They routinely did things that was otherwise impossible, or borderline suicidal. But she couldn't help worrying about Sonic, the guy she liked so much, the guy she had grown up around, and the guy who tended to put his life in the most dangerous situations mobianly possible. Then there was Tails, who she had always tried to protect, ever since Sonic had brought him to Knothole… it was just so hard, sometimes, to reconcile his formerly small size and helpless appearance with what she heard he could actually do. But then, he didn't look like some kind of genius either, and yet he was.

"We were only outside for a little while anyway," Tails added, and a second later Sonic zipped back, wiping the back of his mouth with his glove. He was a real mess: his quills were frazzled as badly as Tails' tails. Still, he looked as happy as a clam, exhaustion aside.

"So, what'do we got to eat around here? This hedgehog is hungry!" Sonic exclaimed, and then, almost as an afterthought, added, "You guys want to get something to eat, too?"

"The crew mess hall is open and serving dinner," Nicole answered, with a little playfulness. "I believe they will be serving chilidogs for twenty more minutes."

"Now that's a well rounded dinner plan!" Sonic lifted one foot to race off, then realized he had no idea where to go. "Um… which way is it?"

A second Nicole materialized next to the first one.

"This way!" She grinned, mock-flexing her arms and taking off in a run. Sonic followed right behind, any trace of being tired disappearing in a flash of red and blue. Sally watched him go, hands on her hips.

"That guy…" she murmured, but with an obvious tone of affection behind the aggravation. "Does he think with his stomach or what?"

"Nicole," Tails turned to the remaining hologram. "Any news?"

"Yes, sir," Nicole replied, her tone professional, and a contrast to the casualness from before. Tails, too, seemed to be slipping back into being Captain of the _Blue Typhoon_, and not Sonic's best friend and sidekick. Or, apparently, the little boy Sally knew so well.

"Cryptography has uncovered some information you may be interested in."

"From the Battlebird ships we captured?"

"Yes. It is of a personal nature..."

"I see." Tails nodded, as if expecting the news. "Anything else?"

"A communiqué from Knothole has arrived at your desk, from Tempest and Nail."

"Ah," the fox grinned cannily "Summarize, please."

Nicole blinked, reading the message in an instant. "Tempest has sent a list of recommendations for physical and mental training while you are away. Nail has also written something about 'astral projection' and the integration of 'elemental magics' into Chaos Control."

"Ixian magics?" Sally guessed, taking a moment to cut in. Tails obviously hadn't minded her being present for all this, since they had been practically standing next to each other the whole time. "That's what Ixis Naugus uses."

"Nail has 'theories' – only in the loosest sense of the word – about Chaos Control and a variety of superstitions," the kitsune sounded skeptical about the whole affair. "Still, some have scientific merit."

"I'll review them after I finish my work," he decided. He glanced briefly at Sally, and continued, "Is that all? What about the troop movements?"

"The fifth and sixth mechanized rifle divisions are still moving into position," Nicole replied, crossing her virtual arms. "We can expect delays of up to three hours. Strike craft completed their runs twelve minutes ago and are returning to the ship."

"Casualties?"

"None." Tails immediately saw Sally about to ask what was going on.

He told her.

"The reason the _Blue Typhoon_ originally came by Knothole was because I hoped to pick up a the chaos emerald while using it as a stepping stone to shuttle over the last wing of Cyclone fighter craft. The MAF has been moving units into position to begin a northern offensive thrust that will retake Starlight city. I wanted the _Typhoon_ in position to assist and coordinate the push."

"They didn't tell me about this," Sally noted, but without surprise. The MAF command often looked down on the Freedom Fighters, seeing them as 'children' and 'glory seekers.'

"There are no Freedom Fighter assets in the area, Sally," Nicole observed. "The operation was approved by your father eight days ago."

So, she was being kept out of the loop again. It was no secret that the MAF wanted to be the ones to formally 'win the war' against Robotnick, as a way of atoning for the coup and its previous ineptitude against the humans. To many, it was a matter of prestige that their troops march through the streets of Robotropolis, and that the Royal Army wasn't beaten to the punch by a bunch of ill disciplined partisans or 'a nineteen year old hedgehog with super powers.'

The interdepartmental rivalry was something Sally disdained, but there was also little she could do about it. Her father made it worse, since the King had always favored the Army as his power base, and not the Freedom Fighters his daughter had cultivated from the ground up.

"Why Starlight city?" Sally asked. There was nothing there that she knew of. The place was a ghost town. Even the bright lights for which it was named were now dim. It had never been a manufacturing center either.

"Let's catch up with Sonic while we talk." Tails started to walk. Sally followed apace, and Nicole did likewise, cupping her hands behind her back.

"Do you remember how the humans fought the last war?" he asked, apparently changing the topic. "How they overcame their numerical disadvantage?"

Sally, a strategist herself, remembered what she had read.

"They were more mobile than we were. They attacked our food and water supplies, and they used air power to hit our ships and trains and trucks." She began to see where he was going with this. "It became impossible to feed or equip the army."

"Exactly," Tails replied. "And what does a robot army run on?"

"Raw materials. Electricity!" She realized. That was what the Generals were up to. It was similar to what she often had the Freedom Fighters do: disrupt the ability of the enemy to manufacture weapons of war. They usually targeted factories or refineries or power plants, but the infrastructure itself could be crippled, too, with sufficient forces.

"Starlight's power plants feed electricity directly to Robotropolis. The reason the city is so dark now is because the Eggman seems to be sucking up a tremendous amount of power. We've been unable to determine why he's using so much, but it can't be good. The plan is to take Starlight, and encircle the power plants. Each one is shielded, so what we're doing is blockading the entire region."

"It'll be impossible to get energy or materials out of the mines or the power plants…"

"The MAF has been targeting these facilities and their infrastructure for several months now as part of a new strategy. Robots need parts to keep operational. Ships need maintenance. Robots can rebuild a factory in a week, but only if they have the electricity to do so. They all need power - for themselves, for the factories, for everything. We've been avoiding a direct fight until now, hitting their transports and power lines. Now we're finally ready to go for their throats."

It was a good plan; maybe the Ministry of War had learned from their mistakes after all.

"You think it will work?" Sally asked.

"I'm optimistic," he replied, moving his hand back and forth in a 50/50 gesture. "It's better than a stand up fight at least. I'm just worried about where all that power's going. I know how the Eggman thinks… he's working on something big. Something special. Why else would he be collecting Chaos Emeralds?"

"To keep Sonic from going Super?" Sally gave the pragmatic and obvious answer. "That does tend to foil his plans."

"There is that," Tails admitted.

They came to an elevator, and took it down a few levels.

"Tails," Sally began, slightly emboldened by the privacy of the enclosed space. "There is something I've been meaning to ask you."

He raised an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Are you… happy?"

For a few seconds, he seemed to have been dumbstruck by the question.

"What?"

"Are you happy?" She asked again.

"I'll just stop the elevator…" Nicole muttered, taking a step back and away from them to give the two more room. True to her word, the elevator slowed to a stop.

"I'm fine," Tails replied with a shrug. "Things seem to be going well. Actually, things are going very well."

Sally's eyes dropped, her expression growing sad.

"What I saw before… the way you flew the Tornado and… killed those other pilots. And what you said back then..."

_"The flip of a switch, and they disappear. Never to cause trouble again. Doesn't that sound easy?"_

"Are you happy, doing that?" she cried. "Are you?"

"Are you asking me if I enjoyed killing those mobians?" he sounded a little angry. "No, I didn't enjoy it. I love flying, Sally. But I'm not going to run from a fight."

"You were looking for that fight!" She replied, a trace of accusation in her tone. "You went after Jet. You didn't have to be out there!"

"I did…" he bit his lip, realizing he was just lying. "Ok. No, I didn't. I didn't have to go out there. I could have let my pilots do it, while I sat in my chair and watched. I **wanted** to beat Jet. I **wanted** to catch the Rogues. I **wanted** to fight."

"Why?" she asked, like the question was painful for her. "Tails, you… you're…"

"I have been given abilities," he tried to explain. "My mind. My body. It's irresponsible to not use them. I'm not a monster…. I don't like hurting anyone. I don't! But sometimes you have to hurt someone, to save someone. Sometimes you have to do what you don't want to do, because you believe in something greater."

"Why…" she reached up to her face, covering her eyes. "Why didn't you ever say this earlier? How long were you pretending to be someone else?"

"I was never pretending," he said, and she could tell he was sincere, despite the contradiction of it all. "When I was at Knothole, a part of me liked being protected. I felt safe there, and loved. At first, I thought you would be just like the Battlebirds… that you would see me as something to use. But you tried to shelter me, and I learned to love you. All of you."

"I'll admit…" he cracked a wan smile. "It got frustrating after a while. I remember when you actually sent me to school… When I was at Station Square, I got an honorary doctorate in theoretical physics… and you sent me and Amy to _junior high school_."

"I thought you were kidding!"

"I know… it was actually kind of fun. Stupid, but fun. Amy and I made faces and got sent to detention. I'd… I'd never done anything like that before." He chuckled at the memory. "It wasn't a lie, Sally. I never tried to hide who I was from you. But I didn't want you to have to see me when I wasn't… who you wanted me to be."

She reached out, taking him by the shoulders.

"But are you happy?"

"I will be… when we win," he said it with finality. "I want to fight, but not just for my own pride. Sonic and I fight for you, Sally. You're the closest thing to family I have."

A tear ran down her cheek, and she hugged him. He was big now, Sonic's size, and it only drove home how she had always seen him as something he wasn't. She'd been trying to protect him from the world, and he'd been trying to protect her from the truth. He wasn't her long lost brother. From the beginning, she couldn't protect him. Fate, the gods, the universe, had conspired against it from the very beginning. He was like Sonic. He was like Knuckles.

The cruel universe had cursed all three with power.

Sonic took it in stride, going on his first missions when he was barely ten years old. His power cursed him with an unflappable resolve that would almost certainly get him killed one day. And Knuckles… he had grown up alone, terribly alone. His power cursed him to watch over Angel Island, forever bound by a responsibility handed down from generation to generation. How much grief had it given him? Tails, too, was cursed by this power. It would not let him stand by on the sidelines, watching while those less fortunate than himself risked their lives.

"I think I understand," she said, holding him tightly.

His arms wrapped around her. Years ago, a lifetime ago, when Sonic first brought him to Knothole, the fox kit's arms had only just made it around her shoulders. Now he enveloped her, and held on tightly. Tears peeked out from the corners of his eyes, and he rested his head against hers.

"You and Sonic. You were the only ones who ever tried to protect me. No matter what," he said the words softly, but the way he said it, it felt like a roar. "I'll never forget that… I'd move mountains for you… "

He let her go and took a few steps back.

"But I have to fight, Sally. I have to do it _my way_. The way only **I** can."

For several seconds, the two stood there in silence. It sort of hurt to realize it, that despite the occasional teasing and joking, Sonic had seen it and she hadn't. He had known from the very start that Tails wasn't normal. That was very much their bond, and it was something she could never truly wrap her mind around. It wasn't disinterest or irresponsibility on Sonic's part, though he was very much an easy going type of guy. Sonic knew. Just like he and Knuckles had done when they were younger, Tails would do what he felt he had to, and there was no point in trying to dissuade him.

Now he stood before her, half stranger, half brother. A boy she had known so well, and yet not known at all. Never once had she seen him play a game with other children. Never once had she seen him read a book of fiction or lose himself in a work of fantasy. When she had read to him, he had always watched her and not the book, enjoying the company more than the story. How little she really knew him, how deeply she misunderstood him, and how deeply he cared for her…

It broke her heart.

"Let's hurry up and eat before Sonic cleans the kitchen out." He was already composed, turning his head to address the still mostly inconspicuous hologram in the elevator with them. "Please resume, Nicole."

"Sally?" Nicole asked, starting up the elevator.

"I'm fine," she said, taking a deep breath and fixing her hair and face. "I'm just glad we got to talk about this."

"I am, too," Tails agreed, elevator doors opening. He and Nicole left, heading for the mess hall. It wasn't far to go, and of course the first sight that greeted them was literally a table piled high with chilidogs.

Sonic was at the head of the table, goading someone onto pouring more and more hot sauce onto the already messy and overflowing foodstuff in his hands. Opposite the blue one, the same torture was being applied to the chilidog held by a much larger mobian. He seemed to be having second thoughts about the food in front of him. Sonic messily devoured the chilidog, while the other mobian took a bite out of his and immediately spat it out, groping madly for a glass of water.

"Ha! That was nothin'!" Sonic laughed happily, and turned around as he saw his two friends. "There you guys are! Come on over! Dig in! They can't hold a candle to Uncle Chuck's house specials, but they'll do!"

"It's just…" the hedgehog chuckled in what passed for a sinister fashion. "A shame that no one here has the stomach to take me on…"

"I see you're challenging the honor of my crew!" Tails boldly stepped forward. "Well, I'll take you on!"

Sonic smirked. "And I'll make you eat those words!"

And so it went. Sally just sighed. Some things changed, some things stayed the same, and some things were exactly what they appeared to be: two guys stuffing their faces and pushing each other in an attempt to make the other spit out his food.

It was _absolutely disgusting_.

…She'd let it go on for another minute or two at least.

* * *


	22. Mastermind iii

Teetering between life and death, Ixis Naugus saw a face. It was one he didn't recognize. Then the darkness returned, all encompassing and without remorse. How long he drifted in the thoughtless void, he couldn't say. Never before had he come so close to the final death that took all mortals, in time. Long ago, the birth fires of his creation had spelled the doom of his three former selves: the desperate last masters of the Order of Ixis. Those three had been fused together, alloyed, in his creation. Not since then had the specter of death loomed so close, no: not even when he had been so ignominiously defeated at the hands of chaos powered children.

How he hated them.

How he hated the world that they lived in. The last thoughts of those three doomed magi had been of greed, lust for power, and an unending desire for revenge. The Order was gone, made impotent and pointless by the march of technology. The Kingdom had remained a foul cancer, corrupting the hearts and minds of the people. All was twisted in Naugus' eyes. It needed to be reset, and the logical place to start was at the Source of All. He hated it all, and it had conspired to ruin him.

When his vision finally returned, he saw a star lit sky. Gone was the agony in his arms; gone was the pain up and down his body. The crystal crucifix was no more, and he now lay on his back, alive and in no apparent danger. Lifting his hand so it was in his field of view, he saw where he had been pierced, but the holes in the hands and wrist were gone. Only a faint outline remained. Rolling over onto his side, he tried to summon his power, to fade into the shadows.

But the power never came.

"Your powers are gone."

Naugus hissed, whirling to see the source of the condescending tone.

"Who dares?!" he snarled, jumping to his feet. Though alive, he felt weak. Weaker than he could ever remember. Turning around, searching frantically for the speaker amid the trees and forest, he heard it again.

"Hey now, don't blame me! I saved your life, after all."

He finally saw her, emerging from under the shade of an old oak tree. She was an echidna; a race he had never had any real interaction with before. Dusting off her thighs, it became apparent that she had been resting, carelessly, under the tree, waiting for him to wake up. She looked young, another child by his reckoning, but it was a youth tempered by confidence and power. There was no swagger to the way she stood and appraised him, only a casual knowledge that she had nothing to fear.

Unknown to him, Lara-Su had been beset by contradictory impulses for the better part of the night. She had saved him from the crystal cross, healed his wounds, and brought him back from the brink of death. She had not done this out of pity for him. In fact, she despised him. In her past, but in this timeline's future, he had tried to kill her (and likely worse). He had given himself to the corruption of one of the Super Emeralds, and she had neither forgiven nor forgotten what he tried to do to her when she was lost and confused.

It would have been so easy to just let him die.

It would also have gone against the plan. His attack on her helped Miles to find her, and bring her into the fold as his first Templar, imbued with the power of one of the Sol Emeralds. It wasn't fate – it was her choice. She would let him live, powerless, and he would fall to the Emerald's corruption. This was part of the future she knew, and so she let it come to pass. That… and one other thing… he had answers.

"You, girl? You did this?" Ixis held up his hand, but quickly lowered it. Unlike before, when Silver and Blaze broke him out of confinement, he was less sure of his ability to turn this to his advantage. Never once had he felt powerless before. Never had he felt so… empty.

"Yeah, well, don't gush all over me with thanks," Lara replied, waving the whole thing off dismissively. "I just wanted to ask you a few things."

The vile magician sneered. "I have no time to…"

Lara frowned, abruptly stomping one foot. The ground shook beneath them.

"I'm not really fond of you," she said, walking towards him. "Humor me, and we'll call this even. I won't mash you into paste or anything!"

Naugus cringed. They both knew he was powerless at the moment.

"What happened to me?" he demanded, expecting to at least get that much. "My _magiks_…"

"Well, I can't explain it exactly," Lara admitted. "But the crystal that impaled you – you remember that – also sealed your powers. It looks like you bit off more than you could chew back there."

"But how…?" Naugus cut short any more simpering. There was no point in it, but he swore that, in time, he would regain all he had lost and more. No matter the cost. Death was almost preferable to this powerless state.

"Very well," he finished. "What do you want with me, girl?"

"Simple!" Lara pointed at him. "You seemed to know something about that guy that almost killed you. I'm probably going to have to deal with him, so I want to know the score."

"The score?" Ixis was hardly familiar with 'slang' but he could guess what she meant. "You wish me to aid you…?"

"Just tell me what you know about this guy… come on, please?"

Ixis huffed; loathe doing anyone a favor he wouldn't be able to use against them later. Lara could see this as plain as day. He was notorious for being just that sort of cliché scumbag villain. Still, she waited for him to make up his mind. She knew his future, already, and there was nothing to be gained by goading him on or making him suffer.

"I shall share my knowledge…" Naugus eventually acquiesced. "If only to avenge myself on that cursed Mephiles. No one makes a fool of Ixis Naugus!"

Lara nodded, finding it hard to bite back a verbal jab that would blow the deal.

"So who is this guy?" she asked, proud of her discretion. "This Mephiles."

"I would not expect a child like yourself to know," Naugus commented, chuckling at the mild rebuke. "Are you aware of the existence of the Djinn?"

"Not really…" Lara feigned ignorance. She had heard a little, but this was a good chance to let her guest get into a talkative mood.

"I thought not," the wizard replied, tone haughty. "Let me enlighten you, then. Many thousands of years ago, a race of mythical creatures existed in the realms south of overland and north of Cat Country. These were the Djinn and the Ifrit. They warred frequently, and they were renowned as consummate masters of magic and chaos control."

That was in line with what some of what Lara knew. In her future, Miles kept extensive historical records (as he tried to better understand his own condition), and he had once spoken speculatively about the existence of the Djinn, or 'genies.' He was certain that they were extinct, but he also theorized that they had disappeared into various gene pools over the millennia. Ancient folklore often stated them to be partly incorporeal and capable of assuming different forms. In the present, it was possible that their stray genes were responsible for such things as certain mobians and humans having five fingers instead of the normal four.

"Among these two groups, three were renowned above the others: Erazor, a Djinn, his brother Mephiles, and Iblis, an Ifrit. They were contemporaries, and despite often fighting one another, they became quite close…" Ixis scowled at this part. "Ancient Ixian lore teaches us that Iblis was the youngest of them, but also the one with the greatest power. She…"

"She?" Lara couldn't help but ask, just for clarification.

"She," Naugus repeated. "In time, both Erazor and Mephiles became infatuated with her. But Iblis' power continued to grow. Her people believed she would soon transform into a being of pure fire and power. They called this being, Solaris. She was confined to keep her from Erazor and Mephiles while the transformation took place."

"Why?"

"You **are** an ignorant one, aren't you?" Naugus smirked cruelly, his mouth lined with sharp needle teeth. "Imagine our world as a coin, tossed in the air. Every thousand years or so, a being of incredible power arises, changing the world to suit its fancy. It is impossible to know who will manifest this power… but at some point, a transformation occurs."

"A transformation," Lara repeated, seeing a connection. It was just like Miles and The Devourer. Both had been beings of power, born in a time when others of great power also existed. In the former case, it was his many friends and enemies, and in the latter, it was the Seven Bright Kings of First City. Some perturbation in the Chaos Force caused an upwelling of power, focused on a single individual.

"Something went wrong," she guessed. "With Iblis."

"Yes…" Ixis savored the word, drawing out the 's.' "Cloistered away, she began to grow wild and mad. When she emerged, she did so as a monster of incalculable power. None could stand against her, and she set fire to the world!"

Lara got the feeling her guest lecturer was a _bit_ jealous. But what he described was similar to what she knew of The Devourer. He had likewise gone quite mad (though she couldn't fathom why – maybe he was just naturally a monster), plunging the world into darkness and war, and projecting his sick sadism into all of reality. The Devourer had undergone a complete transformation despite his madness, giving birth to a new set of Chaos Emeralds.

Iblis couldn't have done the same… was she an incomplete transformation, then? Was it possible that, over the millennia, there had been many more like Merlin, like The Devourer, like Miles…? Had there been others that the Chaos Force had dwelled on, like a magnifying glass, burning away their sanity? Merlin had never explained why it had taken so long to create his replacement in Miles. A sick feeling washed over her. How many disasters had been caused by this insane cycle of destruction?

"What happened next?" Lara asked, though she could guess.

"The brothers, Erazor and Mephiles, decided something had to be done to seal her. But… they differed in their approach," Ixis snickered darkly, savoring the irony, vicariously though it was. "Erazor planned to seal her in an artifact, which he would then hide from the world. Mephiles wished to seal her within himself, using his mind to shore up her sanity. He planned to become the God of the Sun, Solaris."

"The two brothers fought to a standstill, until others came to Erazor's aid. They subdued Mephiles, and then went on to seal Iblis. The living inferno was locked within a sacred vessel, and the pieces scattered across the planet. Where they exist now, if they exist at all, even the Ixian scribes never knew. All this was revealed to us through the secrets of our Order."

"Mephiles…" Lara said, slowly. "He still plans to merge with Iblis, even now."

"But of course. Those with true ambition never truly die." Ixis turned away from her, but spoke over his shoulder. "I, too, shall regain my power. _And more!_ And you, girl, shall regret the secrets you now know."

"Is that your way of saying 'thanks?'" Lara asked, unafraid. She knew where his vengeance and pettiness would lead.

"The Secrets of my Order shall be preserved…" Even without his magic, he slipped easily into the growing shadows and darkness of the forest. His words lingered a moment longer than his image.

"…I shall _not_ forget your face."

"Likewise, ugly!" Lara yelled, sticking out her tongue and giving him a raspberry before disappearing in a flash. "Go stick your face in a cheese grater while you're at it!"

Reappearing at her loft back in Knothole, Lara entertained the thought of going back and teaching the formerly-magic using freak a lesson or two, but it came and went. She'd inherited a rather thick headed propensity for holding grudges from her father and a certain amount of hot headedness from her mother, but with them both came an overriding sense of responsibility. In their case, it had been to Angel Island and the Master Emerald. In Lara's case, it was to Miles and the world as a whole. Keeping the time stream recognizable fell into both categories, even if it caused her grief later on.

"At least I learned a lot…" Lara mumbled, uncovering the whiteboard and the 'time-plot' she had worked out on it and tried adhering to. Taking a marker, she added a few complications, while adding small notes to others.

IBLIS

MEPHILES

SOLARIS

The two unknowns – both were CHAOS USERS

Ixis Naugus she both added and put a line through.

Those were the new problems. A whole slew of old ones remained: HELIOS, which had yet to launch; SHADOW, who hadn't made his move yet; ROUGE, who Miles hadn't pursued in this timeline; then there were the questions surrounding MILES himself. He seemed to be fine… in fact, he seemed to be coping better than she'd expected with everything spinning around him. Would he still have the inclination to do what he did in the previous timeline?

And if he didn't, would she have to **force** him?

* * *

Tails' mood had rapidly soured since his dinner with Sally and Sonic.

Ixis Naugus had apparently escaped from custody, in the middle of Knothole no less, and then promptly disappeared. And no one knew how or why. In fact, no one even knew why he was being transferred in the first place. There was no reason for it. An official invoice had arranged it with Internal Security, and they had followed the order blindly, not bothering to ask who had put it into the system in the first place.

As much of a pain as Naugus could be, the kitsune was also troubled by the apparent presence of Vector in Knothole. The Chaotix were on the move, which meant that they were finally ready to fess up to losing the Super Emeralds. Tails didn't need to speak to any of them to figure out that they were on the mainland only because they had finished combing through Angel Island. The only information they could have that he did not was whether they had actually found any of the Emeralds themselves.

Sitting at his desk, Tails' mind raced with the possibilities.

He'd finished with his work, but even now, it seemed to overwhelm what little personal life he had. The throbbing heat of a mild headache made him wince, and he took a few seconds to try and sooth it before reaching across the desk and moving one of the chess pieces. He then turned his attention to the computer screen, currently split into four windows, three of which displayed other, different, chess boards. Touching the screen, he moved two different pieces on two different boards.

Sitting across from him, on the other side of his desk, Nicole reclined slightly in her holographic chair. She put on a good facsimile of looking intently at the board, even though he knew she had worked out her moves and counter moves to a degree that even his superlative mind couldn't quite match.

Sonic would have rolled his eyes if he knew how Tails preferred to spend his free time. It wasn't that he liked work; or that he liked being busy all the time. It was that he only really felt comfortable when he was thinking about something. If he wasn't thinking about something, and putting those thoughts in motion, then he felt like an idling car… like he was running, wasting energy, and not moving anywhere. So, between the four games, he also let his mind wander back to what he would have to do about Ixis and the Chaotix.

The former wasn't a huge problem. Ixis wasn't half as dangerous or cunning as Mammoth Mogul, and he always tried to do the same thing: he'd go after things that would amplify his magic, like the Sword and Crown of Acorns. Those were safe enough, and he'd already put plans into action to counter that threat. Sonic would probably be happy to race off and beat Naugus up again. The Chaotix were more troublesome.

"Checkmate in four moves," Nicole warned. She looked at him with a worried expression. "You're distracted."

"Four moves?" Tails took a moment to turn his full attention to the game. He also moves two other pieces on the digital games he was playing in parallel. "I see…"

"New game?"

"Please."

The board reset.

He made another move on one of the three computer boards, and the border flashed red. He'd won that one. He'd win the other two in the next five minutes, too. Those were games against other crew members. Nicole, however, had several supercomputers feeding her permutations. Beating her would be a real accomplishment.

"Tails," Nicole began, making the first move. "Have you ever played this game with Sally?"

He shook his head.

"No." He moved.

"Why?"

"It wouldn't be any fun."

The AI blinked. The comment had gone over her head, so to speak.

"Could you please clarify that statement?" she asked, moving another piece. They were playing quickly now, as he focused harder on the game.

"I wouldn't have enjoyed winning or losing the game if it had been against her."

"So you preferred to not play at all."

"Exactly."

Back and forth, they made their moves. Tails was purposefully restricting the time he had to think about each move to less than a minute.

"I don't think that's healthy."

This time, he blinked, giving her a surprised look.

"What?" he asked. "Not healthy?"

"From what I saw," Nicole explained. "The two of you are very important to each other. You should have been more honest with her. You could have either won, or lost, but you should have at least played."

"Now I have an SI (Synthetic Intelligence) giving me advice on women? Are you really programmed for that, Nicole?" The young kitsune shook his head again.

"I **am** a woman," she corrected him.

He raised an eyebrow in response.

"And my database has extensive files on how to form relationships," Nicole continued. "You and her… you should spend more time getting to know each other. She wants to be someone you, the real you I mean, can turn to for help. You should fix things before a misunderstanding causes real problems."

His hand wavered over his rook. "What brings this up, Nicole?"

"You are the link between the Armed Forces and the Freedom Fighters. The two sides do not share good will; if you and Sally end up fighting, it will split the war effort."

He made his move.

"Don't worry about that. Sally and I have worked things out. You were there."

"The Prime and I have noticed that you have problems developing intimate relationships with…" He glared at her. "With other mobians," Nicole concluded. "I… we have seen this in Sonic, as well."

He moved a pawn.

"I would prefer not to be psychoanalyzed by a machine."

Nicole-Typhoon flinched, wounded.

"I am not just a machine," she said, firmly. "Please do not refer to me as one."

Tails sighed, resting his forehead in his hand.

"Sorry," he apologized. He really hadn't meant to say that. It was just that… "This is just a touchy subject for me. I'd rather not talk about it."

"Why?"

"Because I don't understand it myself," he answered, and hastily made a move on the board. One of the chess matches on the computer ended with a win.

"I can drop the subject if you want, but…" Nicole hesitated out of tact. Naturally, she was never really at a loss for words given the speed at which she processed information. "But I wanted to bring it up before I told you about those files from before."

"Oh?" Tails quickly remembered. "The cryptography files? I assumed they were about my involvement with the Battlebirds back then."

"No," Nicole replied, moving her piece. "They are about one Amadeus and Mary Prower."

Tails' hand froze in mid-move.

"What did you say?" he asked, with unexpected calm. "Amadeus and Mary Prower?"

"Yes."

"What _about_ them?" Tails finished the move. "They died. They died protecting _me_."

He could feel another headache coming on. They had only been getting worse since leaving Knothole and his meditations by the Ring Pool. Whatever process was rewiring his body didn't seem to have a lot of concern for his mind. It was no wonder the kitsune considered their abrupt maturation to be a time of trials.

"According to the files we have decrypted, they were registered with the Battlebird Armada. They were also mentioned in a recent resources transfer report…"

Nicole finally just said it.

"Tails… I calculate a 96 percent probability that they are alive."

* * *

The innards of Robotropolis were a maze of corridors and ducts. Snively seemed to know his way around well enough, and he led the procession - one overlander, one black hedgehog, and fourteen robotic bodyguards - deeper into the city. In a briefcase carried by the short human, the red Chaos Emerald pulsed with power. Shadow noticed as they descended that the corridors were becoming cleaner and newer looking, a far cry from the old sections of Robotropolis, encrusted with layers of soot and ash.

"The project should be almost complete," Shadow said. "We have five of the Seven Emeralds, and we know the mobians have the other two."

"Yes, that is true," Snively answered. "And while Helios is designed to be able to activate at three levels of power, we can not initialize the Eclipse Core with our current power supply."

Shadow frowned. "I'm not sure I understand…"

The tiny human scratched his nose. "Well, are you aware of the effect known as cyclotron resonance?"

Science had never been his strong point, so Snively nodded and explained.

"Well, to put it simply, the Eclipse Core is like a giant magnetic fusion chamber, but for Chaos Energy. When the vibration frequency of an oscillating magnetic field matches the resonance of charged particles in a field of plasma, it excites those particles, heating them. By mating a similar process to a series of linked superconducting Chaos Siphons, we are able to effectively supercharge the Chaos Emeralds in the Core."

"In other words… with this system, our five Emeralds will be able to generate more power than all the other Chaos Emeralds on Mobius put together. Unfortunately for us, activating the Core and the Emeralds within it requires a tremendous amount of energy, more than half a million kilowatts, which we first have to convert into Chaotic Cyclotron Energy."

"You could have explained that more succinctly," Shadow grumbled, disinterested in technical jargon and theory. "Simply saying, 'it takes energy to start a chain reaction' would have done it."

"Yes, well…" the little human shrugged.

Shadow waved his hand, brushing off the whole lengthy exposition. "More importantly, once the Core is fired up, it won't need external power, right?"

Snively nodded. "That's right. But we don't have the power generating capacity at the moment to get it started in the first place."

"You said that before. What _is_ the problem, exactly?"

"You've been off chasing Emeralds, so you have no idea," Snively replied with more than a little condescension. "We've scaled back our conventional forces and gone on defensive footing, all to conserve energy. It isn't enough. We've been losing power plants, power lines, relays, charge centers… Helios itself is complete, but if this keeps up, we'll never have the power to get it working."

Shadow's frown deepened.

He had not known this. Of Project Helios, really, he had only limited knowledge - this, despite playing a central role in getting the whole thing underway. The project had come into being a little more than a year ago, when, after the disappearance of Station Square, Robotnick had discovered a black hedgehog kept in stasis. Finding some records during the incident, the Eggman had discovered and freed Shadow from the chamber and identified himself as the grandson of Gerald Kintobor. He was looking for information on The ARK, the overlander space station that had been designed to win for humanity the next Great Mobian War.

The ARK was destroyed.

It had burned up in orbit decades ago, Robotnick had explained. Shadow was all that remained. As the grandson of Gerald, he wanted his ancestor's notes. Shadow had seen, instantly, what Robotnick was and what his aims were. Such a thing suited the bitter hedgehog just fine, and with a photographic memory, Shadow was able to make rough blueprints and descriptions of Gerald's … greatest achievement: the Eclipse Cannon. Also, he had disclosed what he remembered of the doctor's research on Chaos Control and his study of the Chaos Emeralds.

Robotnick was intrigued.

Then, Shadow offered to help him.

And Robotnick had been skeptical.

Shadow had simply explained that he was created to serve humans and defeat mobian-kind. Then, he added that because Robotnick was the grandson of his creator, he also owed him his fealty. So easily, the tyrant had played into the black hedgehog's web of lies. So easily, he had come to trust and rely on him to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds.

Humans were fools, and Mobians… were nothing more than garbage…

They would all die.

Snively and Shadow walked for almost a minute in relative silence, save for the sound of their feet on the metal floor. They came to a large metal door, split down the middle, bearing the typical Eggman-face design that covered every other surface in the city. Shadow silently wondered if it was conceit that drove this madman to plaster his likeness on everything in sight. It could simply have been insanity.

"What has the Doctor decided to do?" Shadow then asked, for good measure, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Actually…" A voice spoke up as the doors opened. Waiting for them, his hands behind his back, was the man himself. The Eggman chuckled darkly in what passed for a welcome. "As a matter of fact, there is much you can still do, Shadow. I have devised a solution to our problem."

"Really?" Snively sounded skeptical.

"Would you like to see it?" Robotnick asked, slyly, motioning over to his side. Shadow turned his head, but saw nothing of any real importance.

"What are we seeing?" the hedgehog asked.

The Eggman made a dramatic sigh, and made a production of walking over to one of the robians working nearby on a panel near the Eclipse Chamber. The Chamber, the Eclipse Core as Snively had called it, was an impressive piece of machinery: it was a vast sphere of black and gray metal, curving in the unlit darkness. A single walkway extended from the diagnostic antechamber into the middle of the Core, a distance of some forty meters or more. Compared to this, the robian who worked on the panel seemed completely beneath notice or interest.

"This," Robotnick said, patting the compliant former-mobian turned robot on the head. "This is the key. Not this one specifically, but all of them."

"Robians can't provide the power we need!" Snively huffed. "We've already consider that option and rejected it!"

"My boy, you always lacked imagination," The Eggman smiled widely, enjoying knowing what they did not. "When in doubt, sometimes you have to do something your enemy doesn't expect. Shadow!"

The ultimate lifeform stared up at the grinning madman.

"Doctor?" he asked, curious.

Suddenly and without warning, Robotick picked the robian off its feet with one arm and tossed it to the floor. The former organic let out a shocked cracking sound, and then the Eggman's foot flattened its head, crushing it like a tin can. It was actually an impressive display of strength from the Eggman's apparently thin arms and legs. The Doctor kept smiling, cheeks pulling back into his bristly mustache.

"Do either of you two realize what I just did?" he asked, euphemistically, and proceeded to tell them, "I just killed someone's friend. Someone's brother. Someone's father. Now do you see what I mean? This is the power we will harness."

Shadow's features darkened. "You can't mean…?"

"I'll be relying on you just as much as Snively," Robotnick said, cutting the hedgehog off and grinding his foot into the remains of the robian's skull. "You're going to be the smiling mobian face of our _peace delegation_. Let's see how much these animals want their loved ones back…"

* * *

**--Notes Chapter 7--**

**With the Babylon Rogues Arc** mostly wrapped up; things focus more on Blaze and Silver. I tried to take some special care in adapting those two for into the COA continuity and story, including elements of Sonic Rush (hence the Blaze and Cream scenes). They're being used by Mephiles, just like the Rogues were, and I finally got to bring him into the picture in physical form.

Hopefully, readers will enjoy how I'm adapting these varied and different game continuities into COA. I've taken more than a few liberties with things (and notably omitted the entire Princess Elise, 'OMGmytearsDoom' thing), streamlining more of the story and hopefully filling out our cast of antagonists. Ixis Naugus kind of got jobbed but it is a noble sacrifice (and a better end than he receives in New World Order) for the sake of the story.

This Chapter was action-bereft, but I think it hold up well relying almost solely on character interaction and development. It does all that I'd hoped in setting up the actions and scenarios that are to come in Chapters 8 and 9. The essential triad of Sonic-Tails-Sally, so critical to all their characters, is fairly well established, while Mephiles keeps Blaze and Silver cleverly under his thumb. Then there's the delayed but inevitable rise of Helios. I think things are set up nicely for what is to come.

Chapter 7 turned out just as I'd expected, but it was a bit short. Chapter 8 compensates by being a good deal longer than normal.

* * *


	23. Strange Bedfellows i

**"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man."  
- Elbert Hubbard**

* * *

**_HMS Blue Typhoon_**

It was time to part ways.

A full honor guard had been assembled in the hangar to see the Crown Princess and the Hero of Mobius off. Twenty four marines in crisp dress uniforms along with a goodly portion of the command staff all stood at attention and saluted. It easily surpassed the reception Sally and Sonic had been given when first arriving on the ship. That had been a last minute thing, while this had been a day or two in planning and as a result everything was polished and done up in good order.

It was obvious to those that knew her that Sally was a little uncomfortable with the whole affair. She had a marked disinterest in pomp and ceremony, and the adulation of her bloodline rather than her accomplishments was one of her pet peeves. She endured it more than she enjoyed it, and she did so because the fanfare was an important reminder of the mobian royalty, and of mobian tradition.

She would never dress up like a Princess traditionally would, but many (older mobians in particular) still saw her as a symbol of the royal house and of the stability of eight hundred years of royal rule. Just like Nicole-Typhoon had learned to tailor her appearance and voice to help morale, Sally also had to play her part on occasion. She waved amicably at the assembled crew, beaming a smile at them before starting up her speech.

Sally had never thought to hire a speech writer, and the impromptu result was only a few minutes long. Leading the Freedom Fighters, she had never had to give a speech longer than five minutes, if only because that was about the maximum duration of Sonic's attention span. Standing next to her, he was already plainly bored and shamelessly looking over at… what was he looking at? Sally's eyes stole a look, and for a moment she wondered if he was openly checking out one of the _Blue Typhoon's_ female crewmembers. More likely, he was looking over at one of the burned pieces of hull that the ship's crew had taken as a trophy from the defeated Battlebird ships.

Then he yawned. Not discretely either; he didn't even cover his mouth.

Sally fought back a frown and finished up her speech. She talked about how proud and impressed she was by the crew of the Typhoon, and about what a fine ship it was. A holographic avatar of the ship's AI, Nicole-Typhoon, stood nearby, and she smiled pleasantly at the praise. Sally then talked about the "proud naval tradition" the crew were following in, and about their "forging a new chapter in history" that would enhance and surpass the old. Sally finished rather quickly; she wasn't in the habit of repeating herself when it came to speeches, and she always tried to say what she wanted to the first and only time through.

Applause followed, along with a quick speech by the ship's Captain and XO (Artificial Intelligence that she was). Sonic said all of two sentences, and then they saluted and parted ways. Curiously, Tails (in dress uniform no less) kept his distance from them, but Sally (and even Sonic) chalked it up to him putting on a dignified appearance for the crew.

Instead, he wished them both well and promised to meet up with them in Knothole a few days. Sonic was heading out to start trying to track down Ixis Naugus (with a few choice complaints regarding "lame, slow-mo badguys"), and Sally had to get back to her administrative work, including an important meeting regarding the Chaotix. Both would leave the execution of the war in this front to the MAF General Staff. The truth of it was that the MAF had politely asked them both not to get involved at all, and requested that they leave at "the earliest convenience."

It was a terribly rude way to treat two true heroes, without which there would have been no chance to re-form the Army in the first place. Ingratitude aside, at least Sally could see things from the other point of view. The Generals didn't want her second guessing their actions in the field, and they didn't want the chance of Sonic running off and doing his own thing. They had control of the air, and the battle was going splendidly. There was no need to share the glory.

So Sally and Sonic left the _Blue Typhoon_.

With them gone, leaving on the transport shuttle to much applause and salutation, things returned to normal. The royal banners were rolled up and put back in storage, and mobians went back to their workstations and duty shifts. Most kept a respectful distance from their Captain, preferring to approach their ubiquitous holographic executive officer when they had issues or concerns. Tails and Nicole entered the bridge, met the salutes of the bridge crew, and then returned to his Ready Room.

…where Tails promptly disappeared.

Nicole sighed, relieved that the ruse had gone off without incident. Impersonating a commanding officer had to be one of the most reckless actions she had taken in her short life, but that same officer had insisted. He wanted to sneak off discretely, and he'd talked Nicole into helping. She couldn't say she was surprised by how he had headed off so suddenly.

She had calculated a high probability that he would do just that when she shared the details about his adopted parents (possibly) being alive. Luckily, the hard fighting was mostly over in the air, and it was basically just a matter of hitting the occasional ground targets and supporting the push south. The offensive into Starlight had gone splendidly, despite the losses caused by the surprise Battlebird raid. The attack had been weeks in preparation, and nothing was about to deter the General Staff from their victory. The city, she had heard, was to be King Acorn's birthday present this year.

With dwindling opposition on the ground, and virtually none in the air, it didn't exactly hurt the war effort for the Captain of His Majesty's Flagship to suddenly go AWOL. Nicole-Typhoon would be the one doing most of the tactical decision making anyway, imbued as she was with documents and critiques of every air engagement and battle in written mobian history. She would just have to keep up the charade a little longer. It was good for her that Miles tended to be an aloof Captain who kept to himself and never mingled with the crew. She'd simulate a few appearances on and off the bridge, and no one would be the wiser.

Sitting down on his desk (as it was improper to assume the Captain's chair), Nicole realized something that was missing in the room. It really wasn't a comparison she had dwelled on before, but for all the trinkets and effects Tails had put into his ready room, one was missing: there were no pictures or friends and family. Nicole had seen lockers and bunks and cockpits where crew members had put pictures of those they loved. There was nothing like that here.

"I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for…" she had said, telling him as he stood outside one of the ship's airlocks.

"Rosemary and Amadeus raised me for two years, Nicole. _They saved my life._ All I want," he had said. "Are some answers."

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER EIGHT:_

**Strange Bedfellows**

* * *

**Chemical Plant Zone.**

Some one thousand six hundred miles lay between the polluted coast of Chemical Plant and the mobian capital of Knothole, far to the east. Tails made the trip from Starlight to that zone in a little less than three hours. He had seen the Great Forest pass below him – a seemingly unending expanse of rolling greenery – as he headed towards the vast mountains in the west. These were the mighty Hilltop Mountains, which he and Sonic had long ago used to circle around and sneak into the backdoor of Oil Ocean, back when Robotnick had overrun these territories and built his first Death Egg..

Riding on a his Yellow Tail Mk3, equipped as it was with an Assault Pack, Tails knew he was making better time in this trip than Sonic had when he first set out to fight the Eggman in the western and southern territories. Tails couldn't break the sound barrier himself, and the ground below had no open spaces for running, making the Mach 2 supercruise ability of the extreme GEAR a true time saver.

Soon, the ground below became rolling grasslands, pockmarked only occasionally by the ruins of old roads and towns. Tails hugged the northern border of this region. There was still intermittent fighting along the extreme east and north of the Emerald Hill (or Emerald Coast) Zone. The Eggman still retained substantial forces along the eastern seaboard, along with many remaining refining and manufacturing facilities. The fighting here was low intensity, though, as the MAF and Eggman Empire forces spent most of their energy fighting between Knothole and Robotropolis. Even the Freedom Fighters put more effort into fighting in The Ring than any other area of the war.

So he circled around and over the Hilltop Mountains, flying low to avoid being picked up on radar. Tails knew the Mountains here well, and steered towards an area he knew to be littered with older ruins. In fact, the whole region was teeming with them, though the kitsune had never uncovered any artifacts of academic significance. Looters had long since picked clean the mountain fortresses and temples, and lava flows had further blanketed the area, making it impossible to excavate. Like he had in many of the ancient ruins, Tails had later built a small hidden base for himself here.

Retracing old steps from the air, the kitsune fox could see the lights of Casino Night City in the distance, at the foot of the mountains. Casino Night was as large as Robotropolis itself, even pre-war. In fact, in both population and size, it was the largest mobian city on the planet. It was also a lawless and debauched place that the King's men didn't even bother to administer. Corrupt officials sat by and did nothing but fill their pockets while the so-called police fell into the thrall of local crime lords.

It had been a hell of a place to visit. His first trip had been back when he worked for the Battlebirds. The research staff had been given a vacation there as a reward for their good work, and Tails (only six at the time) had come along. While too young to find amusement in most of the places his peers had gone, he had been fascinated by the lights, the sounds, the action, and the… energy of the place. It had been intoxicating! He had also lost his entire stipend over the course of one night's feverish gambling.

Bean had been amused but not angry at the loss, but Tails had been mortified and ashamed. He vowed, then and there, never to recreationally gamble again. On his second trip, when he and Sonic passed through, they had cleaned out the Robotnick controlled casinos by hook or by crook (it hadn't been "gambling" – it was "work"). Casino Night had been mostly cleared of naturally occurring Rings by the present, so there was little to interest him there now. It was just a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" … as some over-theatrical types would put it.

Instead, he dipped down and flew lower and to the south. Here was the hidden Aquatic Ruin Zone that Sonic had hated so much back when they passed through here in 3233. Part of a jungle choked floodplain; the area was still infested with badnicks, wandering aimlessly in various states of disrepair. Understandably, most mobians avoided the dangerous Zone, thus making it a perfect place to set up shop when you wanted to avoid detection or interference. It was a given that more than a few criminal gangs had similar ideas, and also hid out in the jungles.

Coming in for a landing, Tails even saw a small walled-in complex built into the jungle: a cult compound built around a totem pole with bird motifs. Everyone saw something different in these reflections of the past. To Tails, they were an interesting link to the greater mobian tradition of civilization. He saw no real spiritual connection, but instead, an intellectual one. This jungle civilization, very likely an offshoot of the bird-races of Cat Country, had risen and disappeared leaving only their images behind. It was a reminder that even civilizations died, and that the only permanent thing in the world was the ever increasing body of knowledge and understanding that all living things shared in, by virtue of their collective physical existence.

They also reminded Tails of his fear.

He had been timid as a younger mobian, skittish even. It was a personality trait that held over from his time as an adolescent, when he had been lost and alone in the world. With his birth parents dead, he had fended for himself at the age of three. For a full year, he had hovered between life and death, living off of scavenged meat, trapped wildlife, berries, frogs and insects… anything he could get his hands on. Many times he had come close to death due to exposure, poisoning or infection. Only the occasional naturally occurring Ring had kept him alive. Predators and the growing numbers of badnicks in the countryside were a constant threat.

Tails had only vague memories of it all: running through the bushes, the sound of something huge behind him, the stink of its hot breath on his back; hiding in a tree, hoping to remain unseen; crying himself to sleep, clutching a dim Power Ring in one hand and his gangrene infested leg in the other… He had been well on his way to becoming one of those feral mobian children he had read about, baying at the moon and lost to animal thoughts and madness. In the wilderness, he had slept little, and never well. Alertness had saved his life, and it left little time for sloth. He had to keep moving; he had to keep fighting, to survive. It had left him prone to being anxious and nervous as a child, but he had learned to control those impulses over the years.

It had made him stronger, too.

The Rings he had found in the wild had made him stronger through those trials. They mended wounds that would have killed anyone else. They kept his mind sharp and focused. He had learned to use his body in new ways, ways that no one had ever taught him. He learned that the power from the rings would often coalesce within his tails, allowing him to control them… he learned that he could cut down a tree, hold up an impossibly heavy weight, and even fly using his tails. A little skittishness was a small price to pay for such an education in adversity.

Passing by a broken down "grounder" badnick, Tails smashed the thing open with one of his trademark appendages. A Flicky bird, still alive even after all this time, emerged from the wreckage and flew off to parts unknown. It was amazing how long the little animals could survive inside Badnicks, stored in stasis. Certain species had evolved small levels of chaos energy in their systems, and this was used along with conventional power systems to keep badnicks ambulatory as well as imbue them with a basic animal intelligence. Unlike SWATbots and Combots, Badnicks were designed to operate for long periods of time in the field with little or no maintenance, often under harsh conditions. Even after a decade of wandering the same routes, a Badnick could still suddenly attack from out of nowhere.

Arriving at the hidden location, Tails pressed his hand against a concealed trigger in one of the vine covered stone walls. It depressed, unlocking and opening a door to the small hidden facility. Wherever possible, he constructed these bases with his own hands (and tails), using existing natural spaces or stable ruins. In this case, he had made use of an old sunken storeroom. Robotnick had modified it to serve as a depot for small animals he later hoped to covert into Badnicks. It even held one of the Eggman's old "egg capsule" containment devices with the giant plunger release-handle on top (empty, now, of course).

It was now a makeshift retreat and observation post.

There was some dry food in storage, and Tails helped himself while he put away his GEAR and contemplated his next move. If things were going to plan, then Nicole would be covering for his absence on the _Blue Typhoon_. Sonic and Sally would be back in Knothole by now; Sonic would start hounding Ixis Naugus and would probably have him in beat in two or three days, and Sally would deal with Vector, confirming that the Freedom Fighters and the Kingdom of Acorn did not, in fact, have one of their Super Emeralds.

Eating what passed for the day's meal, Tails rolled the cold faux meat around in his mouth. It was disgusting, and no substitute for a proper meal, but it was still all he had. Sitting alone in the hidden bunker, forcing down the foul foodstuff (it had been bearable when he was younger, but his kitsune taste buds now seemed to be rejecting it more than usual), Tails thought back to when he had first some this way. It had been just after meeting Sonic on West Island, a couple hundred miles to the south.

Tails had just left the Battlebird Armada in ruins after defeating the Great Battlekuku. Retiring to West Island, he had returned to living a solitary life… only to be interrupted when Sonic landed on the island. The hedgehog had flown in on his original Tornado biplane, using it to get to the island and circumvent his fear of water. The curious hero had heard that there had been some business involving the Chaos Emeralds on the island and decided to investigate (in fact, Tails did have one of the Emeralds, which he had taken from the Armada).

It was actually a similar story to how they both later met Knuckles. Had Tails been of a different mind, and seen Sonic as an intruder, then things would have been very different. Instead, upon seeing the antique plane, Tails had been curious. He watched as Sonic ran around the island, inquisitive but not disruptive. Eventually, Sonic returned to his plane to leave and Tails took that opportunity to introduce himself.

The rest was history.

He and Sonic became quick friends, and together they headed to the mainland after the other Chaos Emeralds. They had gone along the western Emerald Hill Coast, through Chemical Plant, and then into Casino Night via the jungles of the Aquatic Ruins Zone. Lingering in that madcap city, they learned about and took the 'backdoor' into Metropolis Zone. At the time, Eggman had placed substantial forces south of the city. Sonic and Tails instead went through the Hilltop Mountains and the Mystic Caverns, emerging near Oil Ocean (once a pristine lake).

Finally, they stormed Metropolis – an old Overlander colony placed on Mobius Major. Robotnick was on the run, and he fled first to his Wing Fortress, and then into space. Tails still remembered jury rigging a rocket motor to the Tornado in a desperate quick fix to get back in the air after being shot down that first time. It had paid off in the end; Sonic couldn't have made it to the Death Egg without the plane's hasty modification. It had been quite an adventure! And it had felt _right_, following Sonic. It was during that adventure that Tails had really started to admire the hedgehog: for his skills, for his determination, for his upbeat attitude… for his charisma.

That had been a little more than four years ago.

Sonic had been 14, and he had only been 9 going on 10. Just two kids with no family of their own, on a crazy adventure to save the world. With Sonic, and later the Freedom Fighters, he had forgotten all about being alone; about losing his own family. Sally had become like a sister, or an aunt, and Sonic had become the older brother he could look up to. It was a wonderful fantasy.

In truth, Tails had no idea what a family even was. Semantically, he knew what it meant to others, but he had never really understood it himself. As much as he loved Sonic and Sally and his friends, they really never could be his family. His parents had died, leaving him alone in the wilderness. He couldn't even remember their faces. He knew now that they had been kitsunes sent to the southlands to kill a mobian General. By Tempest's description, and the historical records, it was likely that they had been sent to kill Robotnick back when he was just Julian Kintobor, right before the coup. Instead, they died, and if his dreams had a shred of truth to them, then it was Tails himself who killed them.

He frowned at the thought. 'Did I kill them? Would I kill them?'

The alternative was that Kintobor died. Robotnick never arose. Without Freedom Fighters, without Sonic and Tails and Knuckles knowing one another, they would probably have fallen individually. Ixis Naugus would have returned from the Void, undermining the Kingdom of Acorn from the inside. Enerjak and the Dark Legion would have overrun Angel Island. Maybe worst of all, Mammoth Mogul would have become Master Mogul and re-dominated the planet. That was all provided anyone even survived after the humans finished carving up Mobius.

Contemplating all that, Tails could understand the horrible logic of it all. What was pain, what was loss, what was misery and heartache, weighed against the greater good? Would it be the height of selfishness to put personal happiness before the welfare of the world? Wouldn't it be the height of irresponsibility, if he were so destined, to not do what need be done? Even if it cost him his life and his soul?

"The parents I never knew, weighed against the future so many have died for?"

But (like all time travel theories) it was all hypothetical conjecture anyway. Instead, he turned his thoughts towards the two mobians he did, at least vaguely, remember as family. They were why he was here, after all.

Amadeus and Rosemary Prower. He was sure that the last name was false, probably so he'd eventually assume they were his real biological parents. It might have worked too, as a growing child forgot his early years. He remembered Mary as a kind and intelligent woman, who taught him how to read and write and speak in Standard instead of archaic kitsune. He remembered Amadeus as a strict figure, disciplined and determined.

For two years, he had lived with them. For two years, they had been his world, and he had been theirs. The village they had lived in had been indifferent to the presence of a "mutant fox," and while the other children had been typically cruel, Tails knew he hadn't exactly done anything to endear himself to them either. He was never interested in games or play. It was only natural that he remained an outsider.

On his sixth birthday, Tails took several extended leaves from the village to the nearby Cocoa Islands. He had found a number of naturally occurring Rings there, and remembering them from years before, he had taken to collecting and studying them. Soon, he had found a small research station hidden on the island. It had once been a human outpost, and inside was a treasure trove of information. It quickly became Tails' first research lab. Lost in his work, he had all but forgotten anything else.

Then, one day, he heard the distant sounds of gunfire and explosions. Racing back to the village, Tails had found it occupied by the invading Battlebird Armada. It was a raid for slaves and plunder; many of the young men were being carted off in chains, houses were being burned, and even some women dragged off. That was when it had happened… when his cowardice and fear killed the only family he had ever had…

Finishing the can of processed so-called meat, Tails sighed.

"I've tried to avoid even thinking about the past for so long…" he thought, with no lack of bitterness. "Lately, it's like it's all catching up to me again."

Staring at the can, he wondered.

"Maybe I should just… head back?"

But he knew he wouldn't; couldn't.

No one, no matter how fast they could run or fly, could escape from their past.

* * *

**Low Orbit; 3219 MC **

Eighteen years before the present, and eight hundred kilometers above the surface of Mobius' isolated continent of Overland, a steadily growing hive of activity hung in the sky. This was the orbital half of the mega-construct known simply as "Space City," or "The ARK." Here, high above the blue and green world below, swarms of machines spread out from the City constructing a ring that nearly disappeared into the black abyss of space. In time, it would become a single inter-connected structure: a great ring circling the entire planet.

Occasional specks rose up from the atmosphere; these were the lifelines between the space station above and the great tower below. In actuality, each "speck" was large enough to accommodate tons of cargo. The elevators ran along streams of particles, part of a looped system running between low orbit and ground control. That same system kept the Space Colony in a stable non-geosynchronous orbit while the great ring slowly continued construction. The ARK itself was the nexus, the critical hub of activity for mobian humanity and its off-world investments and colonies.

What occurred there would also prove to be the bane of mankind.

**The ****ARK**** Orbital Research Compound - Suite 54-D8**

In a sealed room, harsh light flickered across a man's face, highlighting the rough stubble on his chin and cheeks. Metal-rimmed glasses hid his eyes, reflecting the greenish hue from the adjacent room. The man peered into that room, empty save a single subject, with expressionless features. His companion sitting next to him winced; his face scrunching up into a look of distaste.

"I tell ya, I can't take much more of this assignment, Jim." The man said with a grunt, as he massaged his temples with hairless, human fingers. "It gets to ya, ya know?"

"Hmm?" The other man took his eyes off the other room, visible through a see-through window, to acknowledge his co-worker. "Sam… Did you just say something?"

The overlander sans glasses sighed.

"I said 'it gets to you.' The noise," he clarified, "The sound these things make."

"Oh." Jim shrugged. He went back to keeping an eye on the other room. "I suppose."

Sam looked over at a nearby instrument panel. "It just… doesn't sound human."

"What?" Jim asked. "You think it _should_ sound human?"

"No…" The other man admitted, running his thumb over the GUN patch on his left shoulder. "Of course not. But still, I mean, we've all heard it talk. It sounds human when it talks. But when you get the thing in the chamber… when it's in there… it doesn't sound like any man… mobians… I guess mobians don't scream properly… they don't have the voice boxes for it. They yowl… like some animal caught in a trap… and I'm just getting' tired of hearing it."

Jim frowned and nodded in understanding.

"How long have you been on this detail?" he asked.

"Since it started." Sam closed his eyes, and tried to shut out the howls coming from the room next to them. "Since the old man decided to start 'conditioning' the little beast to Chaos Waveforms. I honestly don't know what he expects to happen in there…"

The man with glasses looked into the other room where a black creature was huddled in a corner, yowling and thrashing as if to escape the greenish radiation flooding into the chamber. Every so often it would start to go into a seizure, and end up smashing its head into the wall, foaming at the mouth like a rabid beast. The two humans were there to monitor its life signs, and to step in if it passed out or had another concussion. Sometimes the creature, when led into the Chaos Chamber, would stand defiantly in the middle of the room… but it always ended up in the same place, the same corner.

Screaming.

"A miracle…" Jim whispered. "We're looking for a miracle."

"Huh?" Sam asked, and sighed again. "Anyway: this one is just like all the other 'Shadows.' It'll end up chewing its wrists off, and we'll be left plugging another black rat through the same routine… again. Though that one'll probably be the last, at least. It isn't like they're going to give us the funding for an army of them like the old man wants."

Jim looked at his comrade again. "What've you heard?"

Sam looked away at the panel again. "Just that the General came by a few days ago. He's going to axe the Shadow Program in favor of the Eclipse Project. As if no one saw that coming after that 'bio-lizard' fiasco and all these little goblins we've gone through."

The other scientist rolled his head from side to side, evoking a few cracks and pops. "I suppose not…"

Project Shadow was proving to be something of a boondoggle. At least the Bio-Lizard had been useful as a prototype and experimental test platform. The Shadows were just useless. None of them seemed to have anything near the Chaos Sensitivity they were supposed to have. At least they still had the mass produced "Artificial Chaos" creatures, but that one success story wouldn't prop up the rest of the bio-engineering department's failures. They were already the laughing stock of the Research Station.

'Gerald's Billion Dollar Lab Rats,' they were called.

"Well… I guess we don't have time to dick around with pet projects at this point. Not with the President calling up a draft for the first time in thirty years. At least we're prepared for this war… Not like last time. I ever tell you that my father fought in the last war…?"

"Everyone's father fought in the last war," Jim countered.

"Yeah…" The other scientist looking down at the GUN insignia he wore. "And here I am stuck in space. Still, the girls think it's neat."

"The twins, right?" Jim smiled; glad the conversation was moving to more mundane topics. The mobian in the room adjacent had even stopped screaming… he was probably out of breath again. His vital signs were still passable.

"How old are they, now?"

"Eight." Sam looked up at the ceiling. "Nothing they like more than watching the shuttles take off from The Gateway. Jennifer says she tells them I pass overhead every three days. Supposedly they go outside and wave."

Jim chuckled softly. "Not exactly scientifically accurate."

"They're just little kids, I don't think they… Holy…"

In mid-sentence, the researcher leapt out of his chair, and gawked open mouthed at the one-way window that showed the Chaos Chamber. Swiveling, his partner looked in the same direction and saw the same thing. In the room, still huddled in a little ball, the creature codenamed 'Shadow-016' began to glow, his black spines outlined by white and red.

Slowly, painfully, the mobian hedgehog began to right himself, first on his arms and legs, and then his knees. Eyes rolled into the back of his skull, Shadow leaned back and let out a soundless scream. His whole body began to convulse and shake as a thick foamy drool slid down his chin. White flashes came and went, in a seemingly random pattern, growing steadily in intensity.

"W… what's happening…? Why did he change color?" Jim managed to say, and his eyes darted around the room for some elusive answer. "Is this Singularity? Should we do something? Should we shut the Chamber Down?"

The senior scientist slowly shook his head. "He's… absorbing it… resonating with the artificial waveform and converting it into natural chaos energy…! After all this time… after all these trials… one of them finally worked…"

In the room, Shadow's seizure-wracked body began to turn a pale white.

"Is this it? Is this the final evolution of Project Shadow?" He continued speaking, eyes set on the figure in the middle of the chamber, ignoring the warning lights that went off behind him. "A conduit for the Chaos Waveform? Or… is this another biolizard? Are we still one step short… one gene shy… of the Ultimate…"

Samuel Florentine never finished his sentence. In front of him the reinforced crystal cracked, and before he could draw breath, exploded outwards at lethal velocities. Shredded by the shrapnel, blinded by the light, he never saw the White Angel of Death he had helped to create. No one would see it again… for almost twenty years…

* * *

Shadow stood, alone, atop one of Robotropolis' great towers.

Absolute solitude was both his bane and his comfort. He felt nothing but contempt for those robots, robians, and other abominations that scurried about the city. He felt nothing but hate for the mobians he had been created to destroy; he felt nothing but resentment for the humans who made him, discarded him, and took the innocent light of his life. If life was truly suffering, as he recalled Maria saying some believed, then sentience was the greatest curse of them all.

What could be worse than suffering; only the knowledge that you suffer.

There was nothing to redeem this world that lay sprawled out before him. From the start, Shadow had vowed to destroy it. He didn't mind waiting, days, weeks, months, even years if necessary. His cause was just, and his revenge undeniable. He rarely even thought much about it anymore, he just went about his business, but now… after months and months of work, it looked like things were reaching an impasse. He had placed all his hopes (so to speak) on rebuilding the Eclipse Cannon.

Shadow closed his eyes, remembering.

_"Eclipse Cannon? What's that, Doctor?"_

_ "Shadow," Gerald said his name with a kindness he otherwise knew only from Maria. Despite his tone of voice, though, the Professor was a busy and distant man. His kind words were rarely met by his actions and the demands he made of his creation. Still, Shadow admired him. He seemed so huge, so great, so larger-than-life…_

_ "Eclipse is a weapon I have been forced to build. At its most powerful, it has the power to devastate a world. But it is only a device, Shadow, without values or intent. Remember this: true power is not measured in units of energy. It is in the decisions we made as sentient beings, and the lives we lead. I only hope that the mere threat of Eclipse will end this war before it begins…"_

_ Shadow remembered seeing a sad look on his creator's face._

_ "To see it used… would drive me to despair for all our futures."_

Silently, Shadow muttered an apology to his creator. He had intended to use Eclipse to wipe clean the world, from one pole to another; from horizon to horizon. Barring that, he had asked Snively to calculate the consequences of an overload, confirming that it would plunge Mobius into a nuclear winter lasting generations. It was a cruel response to a sinful world in need of punishment.

Except, now, the path ahead seemed unclear. Construction of Helios had stalled, and he hadn't known about the initial energy consumption issue. It made sense, he supposed, but it made a once clear end seem muddled. Tentative peace feelers had been extended by Snively, at the Eggman's request, and the initial response had been wary but positive. It was possible the Doctor's plan would work, but what if it didn't? What if Helios never got off the ground?

Shadow knew he couldn't very well hunt down and destroy all the world's life single handedly. No individual could. It had to be done in a single fell stroke, or at most, several. If Helios didn't pan out, what could he do? To his vexation, Shadow realized he really didn't have a backup plan. He had _plans_, but they all involved using the cannon; he just hadn't seriously considered that Eclipse wouldn't be built and activated.

The black hedgehog's eyes opened, as he sensed a presence nearby.

Dark red eyes settled on a figure floating in midair, its back turned. The creature seemed outwardly mobian, in fact, it seemed to be a reflection of Shadow himself. The coloring was slightly grayer, with dull blue highlights instead of red, but the similarities were eerie. Gradually, the new arrival turned in space, revealing a blue-green eye looking over its shoulder.

"Disgusting, isn't it?" Shadow's shadow asked, turning back to the city below.

"And what's that?" Shadow asked, making no outward move. In his mind, he instantly thought of Black Doom. Was this another Black Arms entity, like Doom's Eye? It didn't look or feel like it was, but it was possible that Doom had attempted to create a Shadow copy of his own, after the original had ultimately rejected their alliance all those months ago. Shadow had no interest in simply replacing one tortured form of life with another.

"This world," the other black hedgehog answered, lazily. "So lost in sinful neglect. How many innocents have suffered so that the vile may prosper?"

Shadow's expression remained unchanged. Inwardly, he was surprised.

"Who are you?"

"Someone like you, Shadow. My name is Mephiles…"

Shadow didn't recognize the name.

"You don't know me," Mephiles answered the unspoken question. "But I know you. You and I walk a similar path. Long before you were created, I lost someone I loved. The light of my life. The world conspired to take her away… to cast her into darkness. Now, I wish only to join her there."

In Darkness.

For Shadow, the words rang truer than any of Black Doom's. How he had loved Maria, in all ways. She had been the light of his life - the guiding light; all he hoped and cared for. Even the Doctor, his creator, had done all he had in her name, in the hope of curing her disease. The world itself had conspired against her. Conception had left her sickly and frail, the circumstances of her birth pitted her family against the world's mobians, and even her fellow humans had killed her to get at him. All her kindness had been rewarded with contempt and hate, not just by individuals, but by the callous cruelty of the world itself.

Maria, too, had been a light cast into darkness.

"What was her name?" Shadow suddenly felt the need to know.

"Iblis," Mephiles replied, with a low sigh. "She was… wonderful. I loved her. And you loved Maria, didn't you?"

Shadow screwed his eyes shut, haunted by her face. "Yes…"

"You want to punish this world," Mephiles said, stating what Shadow had kept hidden deep in his heart for so long. "So do I…. I want only to punish it and be with her again."

Shadow opened his eyes again, all traces of emotion banished.

"Who are you?" he asked, this time wanting more than a name.

"A shadow of the past," the enigma answered, turning around completely to face Shadow. For the first time, it became obvious that this… entity… had no mouth. "For centuries I have slept, waiting for the right time. That time is now. Iblis will soon be released. I will join with her, and purge the evil from this world. I will do what the God or Gods of this world have failed to do."

Shadow glared at him, asking without words: are you my enemy, or…?

"Shadow," Mephiles said, holding out his hand. "Don't you see? I understand you. Completely. Let us help each other."

Black Doom had made similar promises; Shadow was plainly interested, but not totally convinced.

"How can you help me?"

"So long as I reunite with Iblis, I don't care what happens," Mephiles explained, "Your work with this human, down below. I know it to be a sham. But you need what he is building. You are… worried… that it will not be completed."

'Is he reading my mind?' Shadow wondered. How else could this Mephiles know so much?

"I won't deny it," Shadow finally replied.

"Then let me assuage that concern…" Mephiles chuckled, a deep, dark sound that echoed in Shadow's mind. "You will find that I know many things and that I make a powerful ally…"

* * *

Rouge was a little surprised he had even shown up. She knew she hadn't exactly made a great impression with Tempest before. This time, he made no attempt to hide his approach, and even gave a small wave of greeting when he saw her perched on top of her little (formerly secret) communications shack outside town. She waved back, and floated down, wings flapping lazily behind her.

"You wanted to talk about something?" The older kitsune asked. "It sounds important."

"Oh, it is," she assured him.

* * *

**Chemical Plant Zone**

Located on the western shores of the continent Mobius Major, the area ubiquitously called "Chemical Plant Zone" used to be a major anchorage and costal community. With a fine semi-tropical climate and a protected harbor, it had grown into a major hub of activity in the region. The trade wealth of the client Dukedom of Mercia, the rich Ginger Islands, and even Cat Country, all flowed through this area. It was this wealth that led to the creation of Casino Night, further up river to the east.

Little of that original infrastructure remained. Robotnick had turned the entire region into a massive processing and refining hub. Automated oil derricks off the coast continued to operate, pumping and delivering their precious crude to Chemical Plant, where vast factories processed plastics and refined the resources of a dozen other Zones. Tails remembered seeing it back when it was new and staffed by almost a million badnicks and robians, all toiling endlessly for the Eggman war machine.

Due to its origins, first as a mobian transport hub, and then as a robotic citywide-factory, Chemical Plant had a strange and unique architecture. A labyrinthine weave of pipes, catwalks and transport tubes crisscrossed the city. Pools of discarded chemicals congealed in the many aqueducts, leaving some parts of Chemical Plant with permanently flooded (and abandoned) lower floors.

The city had new tenants now.

Chemical Plant Zone had been officially reclaimed by the MAF more than a year ago, and a large percentage of the population had been de-roboticized. Most of the badnicks were gone by the time the army secured the area, and they quickly appropriated Chemical Plant and put it to use for King and Country. Work here was hard and unending: mobians and robians worked in shifts, taking apart and refitting parts of the city to be more accessible or simply just working in the many factories and processing centers they had inherited from the Eggman.

Tails held his nose as he skidded to a stop, slowing down his pace to avoid arousing suspicion. The air stunk, but he knew he'd soon get used to it. He'd left his GEAR behind at the Aquatic Ruin base and gone the rest of the way on foot. Or on foot and by tails, to be specific; he doubted he'd ever be able to match Sonic's speed running, but by using his tails as coaxial contra-rotating propellers he was able to push himself to a good cruising speed of over two hundred miles per hour. Going all out, he could just about double that speed for short distances. Knuckles was about the same, but both he and Tails were put to shame by Sonic and Shadow. But then, he and Knuckles could fly, so it was a fair trade off in the fox's opinion.

At high speed, Tails' let his namesakes do all the work, while his feet switched to provide balance and prevent any torque-based destabilization. The method of propulsion he used required a great deal of finesse; his tails first had to be properly recreated, their very molecular structure changing as a result of localized Chaos Control. At first, Tails had made them into simple pusher-configuration rotors, but over time he had learned to increase the complexity of their design.

Like a propeller driven aircraft, the primary limiting factor for Tails' tails was the effect known as "wave drag" that occurred just below supersonic speeds. Wave drag decreased the efficiency of propeller based means of propulsion, making it harder to keep up with Sonic's brute-force running approach (where he used localized Chaos to increase the instantaneous friction and momentum of his feet with the ground). Instead, Tails had been experimenting with narrowing his tails down and using friction to ignite the air as it passed through, creating a turbofan engine. If he could perfect the technique then speeds up to Mach 2 unaided were theoretically possible! The biggest problem was that such a radical restructuring of his tails required far more Chaos energy per second than his body typically generated.

Still, limited as he was, he had made good time getting to Chemical Plant.

Once there, he resumed walking at a normal pace. Wrapping his tails together and 'bonding' them on a molecular level made it appear as if he was just another normal one tailed fox. He contemplated smoothing over his bangs, too, but there was little chance anyone would recognize him just by that one facial feature. A blue eyed fox with three bangs of hair was hardly very distinct. Now, he just had to find Amadeus and Rosemary, despite their using aliases.

Nicole's intercepted Battlebird databanks indicated that they had contact with the Prowers here in Chemical Plant, and that an arrangement had been made regarding some items of an unknown description. It sounded like a common euphemism for Ginger, Black Dust, or some other drug, but Tails doubted that was the case. The Battlebirds had also smuggled some equipment into the city, but it was electronic, and didn't seem to have anything to do with drug running. Besides, he knew (or thought he did) his one-time adopted parents. They wouldn't do anything like that.

Chemical Plant had several designated residential resettlement areas. These parts of the city were mostly converted from the old days, and from robotic dormitories. The population was roughly 70:30 mobian to robian, and Tails saw both types mingling freely. Robian free will was easy enough to restore; all it took was a series of jamming frequencies scrambling the control node, along with the destruction of whichever minboss happened to be in the area. Tails knew that many areas in the south and west still had large robian populations, and it was starting to distance them culturally from their more organic (and rural) organic kin to the east.

Tails checked their faces, and saw weariness on almost every one. Many were thinner than the Knothole population the kitsune was more familiar with. There were no children to be seen. Guards patrolled from high places, some with weapons, but many with only nightsticks. This was far from the front lines of the war, and these were just garrison troops. They looked happy and well fed at least.

He started to look around.

Tails had a picture of both Amadeus and his wife, albeit from their younger days, pulled from the royal archives. It was before Amadeus lot his eye in the war, so Tails had few allusions to it being accurately used to identify the couple in the present. Especially if they were hiding themselves. Still, it was a lead at least.

Asking a few guards proved unhelpful, as did checking with some of the local color. No one seemed to know, but he soon learned why: the different resettlement districts were highly segregated. Each one had a different official administering to it, and each one of those officials had a separate internal civil service. Above them, the Royal appointee of Chemical Plant Zone, a mobian named Damascus Tress (who Tails did not know), had been made Count. He was one of Max's old friends, apparently, and an old school aristocrat.

He ran Chemical Plant like a personal fiefdom.

Staying the night at the first District, Tails felt more than a little discouraged. He was pretty certain that Mary and Amadeus hadn't been de-roboticized (or else they would be in the new royal records), which meant they were probably unregistered. That still left a lot of mobians. Even spending a day at each District, there was a good chance that he'd never find them by himself. He briefly considered appearing and demanding the Count's help in finding them, but if they had been working with the Battlebirds in any way (and the fact that they did both surprised and angered the kitsune, though he had done the exact same for two years), then they'd be hiding from the local authorities.

Staying at a small dive of a traveler's inn, Tails could confirm that Chemical Plant was one of those cities that never slept. Knothole had a nightly curfew; it wasn't anything enforced, it just dictated the time of day when the City Shield darkened and the work day officially ended. Here, one shift of mobians went home only to be replaced by another set. Many were tired and soot covered. Open air showers let them wash off with slightly less than sanitary water before they took their communal meals and turned in. More than a few patronized the 'bachelor's wards' where what must have been a small army of whores peddled their trade.

Taking it all in, Tails rather missed the robotic efficiency and order he had once seen. But he quickly caught himself, and regretted that line of thinking. These were the people he was fighting for – their lives were important and unique, every one of them. It was their very lack of order, their unpredictable and chaotic lives, that made the world worth living in. Not that Tails personally felt much of a connection to them as he was solitary by nature, but he understood the difference between preferring solitude but still having friends, and inoculating oneself completely from the world and forsaking it entirely. Maybe, if he had never met Sonic and the others, he wouldn't have cared. But the people below were his responsibility, too.

The next day, Tails began his search anew.

As Rosemary and Amadeus weren't on file with the royal records, they probably weren't workers at any of the factories in the city. The smaller independent shops and the like were better places to ask around. As expected, nothing in the first district panned out, and Tails quickly left for the second. Here, Tails found his money to be of some use in getting people to talk. More than a few leads had been totally false – just a pretense to get him to waste money. Two had panned out, identifying a small group that spread messages between the districts. Most of it was just garbage, but it indicated the possibility of an underground group that would have better contacts. If the Battlebirds had some investments here, then it would be likely that this group was also involved.

It rained hard on the third day, sheets of water with raindrops as big as bullets falling from the sky. Many of the polluted aqueducts and waterways flooded, leaving large parts of the city inaccessible. In these circumstances, an overflowing dike could flood an area with more than water. Tails got little done amid the downpour. Guards rounded up the able bodied, of which they considered the fox a part, and put them to work helping to contain the floodwaters. Even robians were taken off their work shifts, and sent to help with the more highly toxic areas.

Even then, for most of the workers, life went on.

They went to work in the pouring rain. In rain or shine, it was the same grueling twelve hour workday, every day of the week. Before leaving the second District, Tails checked out the orphanage they had there. He knew from the past that the couple had no children of their own, so there was a possibility they had adopted… but the headmaster hadn't been willing to share any information either way. Many of the children Tails saw there were very young, some barely out of their infancy.

All the ones older than eight were "sponsored" by factory officials, and put into a "work-apprenticeship" program. Tails knew about this program. A year ago, King Max had asked for his input on it, as well as a critique of the overlander system of education at the time. Tails had replied that the humans used a compulsive and mandatory military service enlistment, but that they had a rather xenophobic culture that allowed the system to operate effectively. Mobians had a culture of adult-to-child apprenticeship, using the guild system. The King's proposal, he wrote, had merit because it played to mobian strengths: they matured faster than humans did, among other things. He also calculated an nine percent increase in industrial output.

Now, actually seeing the children, just a few years younger than him…

He wondered if he'd missed a variable or two.

That night, before he left, the pains came back. It was worse than before this time, bordering on a mild seizure. An hour of meditation, recalling all he had learned from Nail and Tempest, helped control the fit. Tails knew had to be approaching the end of his kitsune _turan'ha_, or rut, but Tempest had explained that the experience petered off as one got near the end; it didn't get worse. Blood tests had shown that his body was being rewritten on the genetic level by a retrovirus, but it also seemed to be affecting his Chaos sensitivity.

His hairs on his tails spiked up several times without his prompting, turning into a million tiny blades. Only force of will caused them to revert. It reminded him of when he had first put on the Rhythm Badge back during that Perfect Chaos affair, but it had only taken a few seconds to assimilate the badge's chaos energy into his own. Now, he could feel his control slipping, once or even twice a day. Tails thought again about heading back.

Stubbornness drove him on.

Leaving that night, back in control of his increasingly rebellious body, Tails lingered near one of the district's red light sections. Though he fought it down, the _turan'ha's_ mating call was incessant and shrill in his mind. He often found his thoughts wandering in base and sordid directions, much to his disgust. Mobians weren't a particularly prudish race of people, but females had brought his life nothing but trouble and pain and loss. Still, he momentarily entertained the thought of simply yiffing some hooker and getting it out of his system.

Not that it would probably help much. From what he had learned, the _turan'ha_ was like the echidna _soultouch_. It wouldn't just go away if he slept with some random female. It was the result of his senses trying to find a compatible mate based on pheromones and other physiological markers. It was supposed to reduce actual competition within the group for partners by limiting the pool of males or females that were attracted to one another. This manifested as an extremely strong compulsion towards a small number of females (all of them, _of course_, just the kind of girl he didn't want or couldn't afford to get involved with).

It was like having a libido at war with his calm, rational mind.

"I'll never make fun of Knuckles and Julie-Su again…" he promised himself, feeling something like the aggravation they must have felt back when they first met. It was not pleasant having unfamiliar and usually inconvenient sensations thrust on you after a life of relative solitude and self restraint.

Leaving District Two behind and hitting the city, Tails retreated to the high places only he could get to. There were many parts of the city that were inaccessible to ground based mobians that he and Sonic had skipped over on their first visit here. Tails got his mind back on track by checking out some of the spots he and Sonic had zipped by before. Many had already been identified and cleaned out, but there were still a few surprises here and there.

Among them, an old shield monitor.

Tails cracked it open, feeling the energy flow into his body before manifesting as a solid barrier around him. It was very similar to the more advanced "bubble" shields that he had first encountered on Angel Island. It was handy now, simply because it kept the rain from hitting his body. Instead, droplets collected and fell in a spherical cascade of water all around him. Contentedly drying himself off, Tails found a nice spot near District Three and caught a quick nap, the shield bubble keeping him warm and dry despite the fury of the storm.

By the fourth day, he had become rather accustomed to looking around for answers. He even had an idea of who to ask when he finally arrived at District Three. This residential area was different than the others: slightly larger and more sprawling, with more ramshackle accommodations. Buildings were arranged in a haphazard manner, squeezing between older Eggman structures and tubing. There seemed to be three tiers of structures, with most being on the lowest level. The second seemed to host some commercial structures and a few converted military facilities. On the third tier, a single large structure dominated the view.

This, Tails knew, was the personal residence of the Viscount of District Three, a mobian named Kachig. Despite lacking a surname, he was an old aristocrat from the pre-war days, and one of King Max's more trusted southern noblemen. Like the other Viscounts in Chemical Plant City, he had been given a number of industries to run, and the mobians and robians necessary to fill the King's quotas. It was a somewhat backwards system compared to the regulated free market Tails had gotten used to in Station Square, but in the Kingdom of Acorn one needed to be either nobility or have good connections to expand beyond the local marketplace.

Trouble began almost from the get go.

"Hey! Hey you!"

Tails held back a sigh. Thus far, he'd had few problems with the local garrison forces. Some had even been helpful, guessing that he was looking for family in the city. Others had been apathetic or ambivalent or even rude, but there had never been an altercation. This time, if the tone of voice was any indication, things would go so smoothly.

"Is there a problem, sir?" the kitsune asked, holding up his empty hands.

"Maybe… maybe not," the trooper replied.

He wore a uniform in only a loose sense of the word. Had he been under Tails' command on the _Blue Typhoon_, or in Knothole, he'd have had the offender on sewage duty for a week. Garrison troops were never held to that high a standard by the MAF, but these two seemed to be even worse than usual. A female and a male, both were hedgehogs, one a very dark blue and the other a more common brown. Neither had been trusted by the higher ups with an actual firearm.

"You look suspicious, kid. And we know you ain't from around here," the female muttered, eyeing the fox.

"Where you from, boy?"

'Boy?' Tails didn't let a frown cross his face. The two were boarder guards, standing at one of District Three's side entrances. They had a right to question passerby.

"East of here," Tails answered, and it wasn't a lie either. "I'm just passing through, looking for family."

"Ya look pretty healthy for a vagrant."

"Who says I'm a vagrant?" Tails asked, responding to the female's statement. "I'm a traveler."

"He looks like a troublemaker to me," the female said, anyway, ignoring the fox's statement. Her partner nodded and laughed.

"A stupid one," the male added. "Betcha the boy plum forgot that he's gotta change his money, too."

"Change my money?" Tails asked. "None of the other Districts…"

"District Three's a scrip-only town," the female cheerily answered, walking up to him. "You some kinda smuggler, kid?"

This time, Tails did frown. Every district had its own scrip, or local current issued by the governing Viscount. The other Districts had still accepted standard Mobian Credits, but issuing scrip meant that workers had to spend their money on local business that were basically controlled by a select few individuals. In other words, the ones who printed the money and set the prices doled it out and got it back, all for a tidy profit. Scrip here in Chemical Plant was worthless anywhere, except _maybe_ Casino Night.

"No credits allowed?" Tails asked, to be sure.

"Not a single one, kid," the female replied, chuckling at his discomfort. "But we got a fair exchange rate here. Paulie, why don't you see how much money this kid has to _exchange_?"

The male snickered. "It'd be my pleasure."

Tails' frown deepened, but he held up his hands and did nothing as the male hedgehog searched him, rummaging through the leather pockets of his belt, and then making him take off his gloves and shoes. For a mobian, the latter two requests were particularly galling. They were the equivalent of a strip search to a human. The male then started patting down his tails.

It was a mistake.

"Wait," Tails started to say, "You shouldn't…"

But it was too late.

"What the? AAAGH!" The male's hand shot back, a wince of pain scrunching up his face. He was bleeding, but not badly. Tails had to keep chaos energy flowing into his namesakes to keep up the appearance of having just one tail, and with his recent control problems, it meant that more than a few hairs weren't soft and fluffy. More than a few were stuck in "blade" mode.

"What happened?!" the female squawked, brandishing her police baton. "What'd he do?"

"My hand…!" the male hissed, clutching the gloved digits and inspecting them for damage. "Little bastard's got razorblades in his tail!"

"That isn't it!" Tails tried to say, holding up his hands in a placating way. "I can expl-- "

A metal capped piece of wood slammed into his gut. It wasn't a strong blow, not by the standards Tails was accustomed to by this point. Both Fiona and Sally could hit harder, and they were pure strain mobians with no chaos powers at all. The problem came with the jolt of electricity that shot out of the baton like a cattle prod.

Falling to the ground, clutching his chest, Tails gritted his teeth and focused on keeping his tails together. A two tailed fox would attract a lot of attention that he didn't want at the moment. There was no way any of the underground would talk to him if they knew who he actually was: one of King Max's men. He felt a boot snake under his chin, before rising and hitting him square in the nose.

_"Pain? Pain is just a memory. Your senses tell you to remember it. To equate an experience with it," Tempest's voice filled Tails' ears. "Discipline is greater than experience. Greater than memory. You can not control the pain your body feels; you must control how you experience that pain, and how your mind interprets the memory. Through discipline, the memory of a hot poker can become a cool breeze." _

Obviously, Tempest hadn't ever been hit up with a bolt of electricity.

Rolling onto his back, Tails winced as one of the guards jabbed him with their baton. The impact wasn't much of a concern, but another injection of amps and volts coursed through his body. He felt his control begin to slip. Closing his eyes and focusing his mind, Tails imagined what he wanted his tails to be. He then ran equations through his head, solving and proofing mathematical theorems he knew by heart.

The strange lack of physical damage he suffered only seemed to infuriate the two guards more. He distantly heard them curse and yell as they hit him. Then it was again with the baton, this time to his crotch (that one **did** hurt), and then another boot to the face until they finally drew blood. They even stepped on his tail. That could have been bad. The image of a beartrap, but with molecule thick teeth, came to mind. But Tails' control was better than before. If anything, the electricity helped his body focus. His tails, bound into one, remained soft and pliant.

"There's nothing here," he heard the female say between breaths. The workout seemed to have tired her. "Look at this. Nothing. No blades, no nothing! You idiot!"

"Then what the hell cut me, huh? Look at my hand!"

"Maybe it was a thorn or somethin'."

"That's bullshit and you know it!"

"Yeah, well look for yourself!"

Another foot, stepping on his tail, the heel running along the ground.

"I say we bring the little shit in. Say he had a knife on 'im."

"Eh…" the female made a lazy, annoyed grunt. "Why bother? Just take the stuff and let's get your hand looked at. Idiot."

The male huffed. "Whatever. Fine."

And then they left.

Tails gradually opened his eyes, staring up at the smoggy sky. Blue eyes darted to the left and right before looking back up. It wasn't a very auspicious start towards checking out District Three. Wiping the blood from his muzzle and mouth, Tails sat back up and retrieved his discarded gloves and boots. The two guards had cleaned him out of Credits, but he still had the picture and a few other relatively useless items. Useless to anyone here, anyway. Spitting out a wad of blood, Tails rolled onto his knees, and then got back to his feet.

'Damnit… Why am I even…?' His hand held the picture from the database, and his scowl softened.

_"You've spent all day in here, Miles." A gentle kiss on his forehead; something he'd never known before. His nose already told him why she was here. "Dinner's just about ready."_

"God… I'm so pathetic…" he muttered, shaking his head.

First, he had dropped everything when Tempest arrived, simply because it was so achingly curious about his origins and about his people, and now there was this. All it took was a passing mention about two people from his past, and he lost all sense of his duty. Sonic never would have gotten so worked up over it, but then: Sonic had his parents, even if he spent more time away from them than with them. Even Sally had her father and mother and brother now. Rotor still had his kin, even if they lived far away. Bunnie had her adopted family with Cream and Vanilla; only Antoine, having lost his father recently, fell even remotely in the same boat.

'So what?'

Why did he care so much about not having a family; about not having a race of people; about not having any ties to the past? Nostalgia was never productive. Who needed a people when you could stand alone, on your own merits? Who needed a family, when you had your friends, your peers, and your work? Who needed intimacy, when you preferred the company of machines to other mobians?

_"From what I saw," Nicole explained. "The two of you are very important to each other. You should have been more honest with her. You could have either won, or lost, but you should have at least played."_

It was stupid.

_"She wants to be someone you, the real you I mean, can turn to for help."_

'Turn to for help? Sonic never turns to anyone for help! A man, **a real man**, should be self reliant! If I need something, I **make** it. If I want something, I go **get** it. If I say something, I **live** by it! Isn't that what it means to be cool? Isn't that why everyone _loves him_ so much?'

"Looks like you've had some bad luck, Mr. Fox," a teasing voice interrupted his thoughts. Looking to his side, he saw a black gloved hand, palm up. Both it and the voice were familiar. Looking further up, shock was open and obvious on his face.

"Come on," she said with a small smile. "Let me give you a hand."

"R… Rouge?" Tails hesitated a second, but did take her hand. With rather more strength than she appeared to have, she helped him back up and onto his feet.

"Not expecting me?"

"Of course not!" Still shocked by seeing her, he couldn't cover up his surprise. "I mean… how did you find me? Who sent you to find me?"

"Finding you wasn't too hard. Remember who you're talking to," the former spy admonished him for forgetting. She was one of the world's best, after all. Hands on her hips, she carefully watched him as he composed himself. She was currently incognito, eschewing her less than inconspicuous catsuit for a plain pair of near-black denim pants, an unremarkable pink shirt top with the sleeves rolled up, and her wings drawn up over her sides like a vest. Phyllostomids (bats) were still a rarity outside Cat Country, but there was obviously little that Rouge could do about that.

"As for who sent me," her tone grew even more playful. "You did. Didn't you?"

Tails' paused before answering.

"Only in a roundabout way," he concluded.

"Relax a bit, would'ya?" Rouge leaned in closer to him, still smiling. "I came to help, plus… you're on my kind of mission, now aren't you?"

He outright said it; not mincing words. "Can I trust you, Rouge?"

"With _some_ things," her answer wasn't exactly reassuring. It was hard to filter her teasing from her statements of fact. "After all, I've figured out what you're up to, and I've kept it to myself. That must count for something."

"What I'm up to?" Tails asked, rhetorically. "Is that so?"

"At least some of it." She winked at him, conspiratorially leaving even closer to whisper, "How many of those lovely gems do you actually have, Miles?"

"I see." His reply was curt, and his eyes darted left to right. "Let's talk somewhere else. If you still want to help after that, then I'll… owe you."

"I knew you were a reasonable fox!" Rouge backed off, smiling triumphantly. Tails was less than pleased. Perhaps it had been a mistake to send that message to her, but he had believed her the only one able to do the job. Frankly, he had underestimated the batgirl. Then again: maybe this was for the best.

Tails tucked the picture of his parents away in one of his belt pockets and started towards the heart of District Three. Weak as he was, stupid as he could be, it was time to find out just what the past meant to him. It was time to find his parents and bury the last of his doubts and fears.

Only then could he definitively move on without looking back.


	24. Strange Bedfellows ii

* * *

**Labyrinth Zone.**

The dank, cold air stuck to absolutely everything: the walls, the floor, the creeping masses of vines, and Shadow's thin coat of fur was not immune either. It was a dark, inhospitable place, lost for centuries until it was accidentally unearthed during the Great War. This close to Robotropolis, just to the east, it remained a lifeless and forbidden place, untouched and unstudied. To make matters worse, much of the Zone was flooded and Shadow had no inclination to venture into those areas. While it was not a fact he was eager to share with the world, the Ultimate Life Form never had gotten around to learning to swim.

There hadn't been many open bodies of water on the ARK to practice in, anyway.

It was the water - stagnant in some places and a raging torrent in others - that made the Zone particularly treacherous. The floors were slippery, the atmosphere thick and musty, and the lighting dim at best. The nature of the ruins themselves added to the danger. Most of it was stable enough, but many sections were deceptively fragile, and there were areas suspended over deep water, often lined with the jaded remains of old spike traps. Even the vines that covered the place like a black and green carpet were hostile to intruders: thick or thin, a multitude of needle like serrations covered them. Even the leaves bore tiny barbs that tried to catch the skin and entangle passerby.

Steely electric lights lit up the chamber Shadow currently found himself in. It was a vast repository dubbed "The Archive." Built in the shape of a hexagram, the Archive was twenty or more meters to a side, and each towering slope hosted dozens of carved faces and shapes, along with empty racks that may once have held books. The carvings were grotesque and nightmarish: most were contorted faces, some human-like, others more mobian, screaming or wailing in silent torment or grief. The indentations of bodies coiled around one another, and everywhere there were the faces and images of birds. They were glaring down at every angle, lifeless stone eyes full of predatory hunger and hate.

High above, the domed ceiling was little more than a black pit.

It was an eerie place to be sure, even for the most stoic and cold hearted. Shadow had never had an interest in Mobius' many ruins, but he could almost hear his creator, Professor Gerald Robotnick, lecturing about them. The man had been a true polymath, accomplished in many fields: physics, biology, archeology, anthropology, ethnology, philosophy, astronomy and many more. Even now, the great man's words whispered in the back of Shadow's mind, between the realms of conscious recollection and unconscious imagining.

"Scan complete. I am transmitting data."

"Good," Shadow replied, crossing his arms and turning to face the only other companion he had in this forgotten place. Metal Sonic was poor company, but Shadow could appreciate his silence if not his malice. Even with cold steel for eyes, Metal's hatred of all things mobian, and especially hedgehog, was all but palpable. To be modeled after Sonic, the creature he hated and despised most of all, probably did little to assuage the artificial emotions.

"Transmission complete. Incoming orders." Metal's voice was monotone and expressionless. "The Doctor wishes to remind you of your priorities. Shall I repeat them?"

It would be a mistake to assume by his tone of voice that Metal Sonic was some unthinking automaton. He was logical and cold, even when inwardly furious. The Doctor had purged him of all the unnecessary emotions and thoughts that had been copied from Sonic. What remained was a rage filled shell, disciplined, obedient and merciless. It was also intelligent and unpredictable outside the constraints of its programming.

"I _know_ why I'm here," Shadow said, and Metal let the topic drop. He was a true AI, and he knew how to read and respond to organics, and how to learn from them.

"You only believe you do," Metal's reply was typically icy. "You are flesh and water. You have no purpose."

"And metal and plastic does?"

"A guiding intelligence created me. In metal. In plastic." The robot walked towards one of the walls, its steps against the stone creating a distinct 'ka-tank-ka-tank' sound. "That intelligence guides me now and forever."

Shadow had heard this before. Metal knew that he, too, had been created by human hands. They were alike in that respect, and they both knew it. The difference was that Metal saw itself – or maybe himself – as something greater. To him, Shadow was just another oily bag of meat, not the superior creation of a superior intelligence.

Shadow suddenly thought of a new response, "Really? Are you saying Robotnick is your God?"

Metal tilted his head, but only to further scan the ruins around them.

"God. A deity created by organics as a consequence of their inability to accept death. It is the creation of a mind that recognizes its limits. I am not so weak. I have no need for the concept."

"You recognize him as your creator," Shadow said, repeating Metal's own words, "His intelligence guides you. He has given you laws, commandments, you can not break. Hasn't he given you the very limits you claim not to have?"

"A law is not a limit."

"A natural law."

"Your definition of a natural law," Metal said, turning his head completely around one hundred and eighty degrees. "Is not my own. Our circumstances are in no way the same."

"Of course not…" Shadow conceded, tucking his hands behind his back and turning away from the insane robot. It had been a momentary diversion, arguing with Metal, but as always it grew tiresome. He was not so blinded by pride that he felt the need to beat words into a talking toaster like Metal Sonic. Metal's hate, after all, was only a reflection of his shell of an existence; Shadow's righteous anger found its root in the world's injustice, not some petty vendetta.

No: their circumstances were not similar.

Professor Robotnick had given Shadow free will, and a true intelligence. He had given Shadow life, not faux life. The Professor's grandson had potential, but Shadow knew he would never have the gall to create a life form that could actually challenge his expectations. Shadow respected _his_ creator, but he knew that Gerald's word was not divine or natural law. The only law was what one applied to oneself, and Gerald's wishes were not the extent of Shadow's designs.

Still, Shadow was not surprised that the Eggman had sent his cobalt blue enforcer along as an escort. This was an important mission, after all. Shadow had "discovered" that Ixis Naugus was in the area, attempting to unearth some ancient evil. Neither the Doctor nor his enemies in the Kingdom of Acorn wished for another Perfect Chaos to pop up on their doorstep, unannounced. Furthermore, both King Max and Robotnick hated Ixis with a personal passion. With the secret negotiations proceeding apace, it was decided that both powers could run a joint op to protect their worldly interests.

Neither of them had any idea what was actually at stake here.

"This script…" Shadow thought aloud, running his hand along the base of one of the walls. "Seems… familiar…"

"Unlikely," Metal Sonic corrected him, eyes glowing red in the darkness at the edge of the electric lights. "These logograms have never been translated."

Shadow stared hard at the strange pictograms.

"Light," Shadow said aloud. "Light of God. Or God of Light… the writing is like a graph. The meaning comes from the arrangement of the…" He shook his head.

"Interesting," Metal said, suddenly looming nearby. "Recalling a dead language?"

"No. Not that… more like a memory of something I heard…" Shadow stood up, and brushed off his knees. "Nevermind. It doesn't matter."

Metal stared at him, evaluating, calculating, and then… he walked off, with a rhythmic ka-clack-ka-clack. Shadow frowned. The realization had been so sudden, so strong, like a memory of Maria, except it was like the Professor had been reading those dead words to him. Was he remembering something Professor Robotnick had taught him? There had been times in the past when he had simply realized things, known them out of the blue, just like with the Eclipse plans from the ARK…

"He is here," Metal spoke up, interrupting Shadow's thoughts.

"How do you know?"

"Sonar," the robot replied.

Sure enough, a few seconds later a familiar blue blur blasted into the room. Sonic stopped on a dime, leaving a skid mark on the stone floor and kicking up a cloud of dust that (perhaps not coincidentally) blew right into Metal Sonic's face. The blue one made a grand gesture of looking around and taking in his surroundings… he then promptly lost interest and walked over to his robotic duplicate.

"Heh heh, sorry 'bout that!" Sonic wryly chuckled and tried to wipe some of the dust off his android nemesis. "I didn't literally mean it when I said you were always welcome to eat my dust…"

Metal just glared.

"That's the problem with you two. No witty comebacks!" Sonic shrugged and jaunted over to where Shadow stood, arms crossed. "Is it so much to ask for _just one_ sharp tongued bad guy?"

"You're as annoying as ever, blue hedgehog," Shadow turned his head to speak past Sonic to his cobalt doppelganger. "Did the fool come alone, Metal?"

"It seems so," said robot confirmed.

"What? You guys gonna turn against me already?" Sonic asked with a laugh. "Well, the sooner you try and stab me in the back the sooner I can go home, I guess."

"Home?" Metal hissed, a low static-filled sound. "I'll send you to Hell."

"That's a new one! You get your wit-box upgraded or somethin'?" Sonic gave Metal a smirk filled to overflowing with confidence. "But let's face facts: I've beaten you so often you should have a recycling symbol on your chest."

Metal's fist clenched and Shadow wondered if the robot would be more of a liability than a help in what was to come. Sonic was aggravating by his very nature. Shadow had realized this after meeting the great Hero of Mobius just twice. There was no fondness in him for the blue buffoon, but that didn't mean Shadow would let his feelings get the better of him.

"He got you there, Metal. Even if they were different models, they were still your predecessors," Shadow reminded him, and then added, more forcefully. "Remember your orders."

For a few long seconds, Sonic's smirk widened.

"Killing you here would not be satisfying," Metal concluded, fist unclenching. "I wish for an audience of your loved ones to see you… when you die."

"Looks like some of your over-the-top drama rubbed off on him, Shads," Sonic joked, assuming that all too-familiar tone of voice he used against all his enemies (and most of his friends, too). The jocularity of it all rubbed Shadow the wrong way. It always had.

'Someone who was never serious should never expect to be taken seriously,' or so Shadow thought.

"Maybe if you fought as well as you talked," Shadow commented, a small smile of his own taking form. "Your side would have won the war already."

"We're working on it," Sonic replied, grin not faltering in the least. "Way I hear it: we've got you guys by the balls."

Shadow's eyes narrowed. "We'll see."

The three arch enemies stared down their respective targets. Metal, of course, had only contempt and hate filled designs for Sonic. Whatever minor disagreements he had with Shadow paled to nothingness in comparison. Shadow likewise felt only a mild dislike towards the steel simulacrum. Sonic was one of the few beings on the planet that Shadow knew to be a potential threat and impediment to bringing lasting and final justice to a corrupt world. While they had only skirmished before, both knew a showdown was all but inevitable. Appropriately, Sonic had eyes only for his new and more exotic rival, eschewing the robotic copy Eggman kept rebuilding and perfecting.

"I don't trust either of you two, but I'm always up for a challenge and this looks interesting. That's why I came. Cause it'll be fun telling people how I kicked your sorry butts when you break your word."

"So…!" Sonic leaned back on his heels, having said his piece on that topic before blithely changing it. "This is where you think Ixis went, huh?"

"Yes," Shadow replied, ignoring the remarks about betrayal. This was supposed to be a 'joint mission of cooperation' between the Eggman Empire and the Kingdom. Snively had sold it to the mobians that way, billing it as a show of good faith in the tentative peace talks. Both parties logically hated Ixis and didn't want him getting out of control, but there was little doubt that the Mobians expected some sort of 'stab-in-the-back' as Sonic had said.

That Sonic had come, not just expecting but looking forward to a betrayal…

'He's an odd one," Shadow couldn't help but think. 'Is he a fool? Or is he suicidal? Perhaps he's lost his mind? Who else would go looking to pick a fight like this? Could it be that Metal's confidence in his lack of limits comes from the original?'

"I felt him use a form of Chaos Control to open a rift here in the ruins, the black hedgehog explained. "I had planned to go after him alone, and destroy him, but I was told to wait."

"Any idea what he's up to?" Sonic asked, taking a quick look around the ancient Archive.

"I believe there is an inactive Warp Ring here," Shadow answered. "It is impossible to say where it goes."

Sonic coughed, conspicuously. "Trap. (cough) Trap."

"Why bother, when we could just kill you if we so desired?" Metal asked, taking a few steps towards the hedgehog.

"Riiight," Sonic briskly replied, dismissing the silly robot. "Well, what's the problem? Where is it?"

It was fairly well known, although among a select and empowered few, that Warp Rings occurred when powerful entities approached a nexus point for local Chaos Energy. These portals often required a set amount of Chaos Energy present in an individual to trigger their appearance, if the area itself was not rich in the necessary energies. Virtually all Warp Rings led to the Secret or "Special" Zone, where Chaos Emeralds often resided. How the Emeralds got there from the proper material plane was not well understood. It was believed that intensive use eventually caused some sort of 'planar phasing' that returned the Emerald to a Zone closer to that of the Chaos Force itself.

"Very old Ring Gates," Shadow said, using the other name for set Warp Rings. "Often fade over the centuries, as they are replaced by newer ones elsewhere."

"Like a door jammed shut," Sonic said, simplifying the statement so much that Shadow felt dumber already, simply by proximity. "I got it."

"Suffice to say," Shadow continued, exacerbated by talking to the upbeat blue hero. "It will take more energy than either of us have individually to reopen it. Ixis must have found some trick to slip inside… Metal…? …Metal!"

The robot seemed to be staring off to the side.

"What is it?" Shadow asked.

"I am detecting an intruder," Metal said, with a hint of amusement. "But I know this one. She is harmless."

"Who?" Sonic asked, and then guessed. "Oh, not **her**! Let's hurry up and go already!"

Shadow had no idea who they were talking about, but he was eager to get going. Sonic jumped over the room, landing equidistant from Metal and Shadow, forming a triangle between them. Both began releasing Chaos Energy. Sonic's was invisible, but it built up around his feet and rippled both up his legs and into the ground. Shadow's hands began to glow a faint white, while Metal's eyes burned a hot mercurial red.

With a shudder, the air between them twisted and boiled.

A blast of hot air exploded, shaking the walls and billowing through Sonic and Shadow's quills. A tiny pinprick of light spun frantically in the air between the three of them. Crackles of ethereal electricity ran along the floor, and recesses in the walls lit up with fire. A complex geometric pattern spread out beneath them, and when it reached the walls, it climbed up along hidden paths in defiance of gravity.

The entire Archive lit up with light and flame, as the fires created burning mosaics all around them. The left a haunting glow set against the many savage faces and tortured figures, highlighting their anger and suffering in bas relief. It was a strange and amazing sight, and Sonic made the only sound: letting loose a long appreciative whistle. When the fire reached the ceiling, it lit up a zodiac of shapes and figures, all revolving around a great ball of flame that sat at the dome's apex. This had to be the Sun itself… or rather, the God of the Sun.

Solaris.

"Are these the 'Flames of Disaster' Mephiles mentioned…?" Shadow wondered, but kept such thoughts to himself. Things seemed to be going according to plan.

In the center of the Archive, the tiny point of light began to expand. Shadow now wondered about that translation. Was it really an Archive… or a storehouse for something else? This place was surely designed to accomidate something other than old books. Still, no doubts assailed the Ultimate Life Form. This was for Maria. This was for Justice. This was to punish and set right a world born wrong.

The point of light suddenly expanded, first to fist size, and then it became large enough to swallow a small mobian. With a great trumpet like sound it expanded one more time, blasting sound and air out of the way with enough fury to make both Sonic and Shadow wince. Metal Sonic alone stood unfazed. The heat and the glow of the room painted the robot in a dazzling array of colors, but gave no hint as to its actual mood.

Between them, a burning Ring of Fire slowly revolved.

"We've done it," Shadow said, breathily. "Amazing…"

"I've never seen a Warp Ring like this before," Sonic's voice was a mixture of awe and apprehension. But there was no fear there; he took a few tentative steps towards it before turning to Shadow.

"You first," Sonic insisted.

"Afraid?" Shadow asked, smirking.

"As if!"

"If I step through, the portal may disappear…"

"Yeah. You'll forgive me for not jumping headfirst into a **giant flaming warp ring**. What do you…?"

"Enough," Metal Sonic interrupted. He was already standing next to the strange Ring Gate, looking up at it. Before either Sonic or Shadow could make a move, the robot reached up.

And vanished in a flash.

Sonic and Shadow exchanged angry looks before making a mad dash for the Warp Ring. Two flashes of light later and they were gone. The angry flames that swirled about the slowly turning Ring did not abate. Instead, they found a new source of Chaos Energy that kept the gateway open.

Silver telekinetically lowered himself onto the floor.

"These flames… and the Trigger…" the pale hedgehog mused, eyes boring into the portal ahead of him. "Mephiles said not to worry, but… I just can't shake this feeling of dread…"

"Sonniku! I finally caught you!"

"AAAHHHH!!"

* * *

**Chemical Plant**

Tails sat in the waiting room of the Free Clinic, watching Rouge sweet talk someone at the front desk. He still wasn't sure what the bat girl wanted, but for the moment he was willing to hear her out and accept her help, even if it came with a price tag attached. If she knew as much as she implied she did, then it would be in his own best interests to accommodate her… or kill her, of course, but he wasn't so heartless that the option was in any way palatable.

The Clinic she had led him to wasn't exactly well advertised, but it seemed to be well known by the locals. A dozen mobians and even one robian waited nearby for treatment, in varying states of disarray. Many were coughing, and Tails could guess that they had respiratory ailments due to the weather – a layer of smog was swiftly descending on the Zone. Chemical Plant had been polluted from the day he and Sonic came here, and little had changed after its transition to Royal administration.

At least the staff here seemed helpful and well equipped.

The whole place definitely had a bit of a used appearance to it, but it was a sanctuary from the troubles outside. Ventilators kept the air clean and circulating, and several children played in an isolated room with toys and games. He watched as one of the nurses, flanked by a squat medbot on four wheels, helped an old man out of his chair. A moment later, the doors to the Clinic slid open, and two of the District Guards stormed in.

For a second, Tails wondered if they were the two from before that he had encountered, but these were different. It looked like one of them had a chemical burn on his arm. The kitsune fox was familiar with all manner of burns, and he had personally experienced most of them at one point or another in his life. Even a mechanical genius had accidents, after all. Trying to look inconspicuous, he saw the guards walk up to the nurse and demand immediate treatment, which they got without a fuss. Neither paid any attention to the peons in the waiting room.

His ears perked up as he heard Rouge's approach.

"Well?" he asked, seeing her standing nearby. He still wasn't even sure why they were here.

"I've got a place for us to stay," she said, leaning over and whispering.

"What does _that_ matter?" Tails whispered back.

Rouge leaned back, and patted him playfully on the shoulder. "You're a smart guy, but you really have no clue sometimes!"

He stood up, tall enough to look her in the eye. "Then why don't you explain it to me?"

Rouge shrugged, and started to walk away. He took a few long steps to keep up.

"Aside from personal showers and clean water," Rouge argued, but kept her voice relatively soft. "Staying here has other benefits, too."

Swiping a key card over a concealed reader built into the wall, Rouge unlocked a door leading to a flight of steps. At the top, built into a corner where two walls intersected and met the ceiling, a green tinted robotic eye scanned those heading upstairs. It scanned back and forth in a steady rhythm, ever alert. At the top of the steps, the two mobians rounded the corner and opened another door.

As expected, this was a dormitory for the Clinic staff.

It was certainly clean and well maintained, but Tails still couldn't figure out why they had to come here. Even after being basically robbed by the District guards, it wasn't too hard to make a little money, and he was sure Rouge had plenty on her. They could have stayed anywhere. He followed the bat girl down a hallway, and then into a small room opposite one of the bedrooms.

At first, it looked like a little lounge. There were a few chairs, a couch, and a single television set along with two plastic plants. Rouge approached one of the walls, and held up her card. Without further warning, one of the panels in the wall retracted, revealing a small cubbyhole. Rouge put away the ID card and retrieved what was inside: a pocket computer.

Tails quirked an eyebrow at this. "Rouge… this place…"

"You could do well to remember. Even with what happened to Station Square," Rouge replied, entering her name at a prompt on the little computer. It chimed in response. "GUN's Intelligence services are still the finest in the world."

She turned the TV on, but instead of a public access show like one would expect, it displayed a slowly scrolling list of mobian faces flanked by relevant information and statistics. Additional options popped up as bars on the top and left sides of the screen. It was a nice set up: even with the ID card, it couldn't be compromised without either an in depth examination or the proper written authentication Rouge had. Even if the guards searched the place, and even if they found the little computer, it was unlikely they'd think very much about it.

"What happens if you enter the wrong information on that?" he asked, inclining his head towards the computer.

"It logs you in and displays a random recording of a sports event," Rouge cheerfully replied.

Tails gave an appreciative snort.

"I thought you'd like it," Rouge said, setting the database up for search parameters. "As you can guess, GUN has secretly funded this operation for some time."

"How? Why?"

"Think about it," she answered. "There's obviously no way for a human or overlander to gather intelligence on mobians without sticking out like a big, bald, sore thumb. Instead, we work through third parties, providing grants, funding and other assistance."

"Assistance… like weapons, vehicles and drugs," he speculated.

"I never heard of an op running drugs," Rouge corrected him. "But we move what we have to, to accomplish our objectives. Don't act like you're any different, and don't pretend you didn't receive any 'funding' or support of your own."

"I suppose not…" Tails conceded, though he plainly didn't appreciate the comparison. It had been just what that Underworld negotiator had said. He did what he had to, for the good of the country. He had the technology, after all, and the expertise. It all fell on his shoulders.

"So what _is _GUN planning here?" he asked.

"You mean _was_. There is no active op in this city anymore. It's all automated," Rouge said, and held out her hand. "Let's see that picture."

Tails slipped his hand into one of his belt pockets and retrieved it. Rouge took a quick look at it herself, smiling at the happy pre-war couple. Then she held it up to the pocket computer and activated a camera scanner. After a second of processing, the picture appeared on the screen. Rouge tapped in a series of buttons, and then used the tablet pen to highlight what she wanted.

A program analyzed the two faces in the picture for depth and contrast, quickly assigning a number of points to each face on a skeletal grid. Major facial features were analyzed. Tails informed Rouge that the male – Amadeus – had lost his left eye in the Great War. Of course, now, it could have easily been replaced by a prosthetic, fully functional or otherwise. The program then aged the faces, and right before Tails' eyes, his adopted parents became just like he remembered in his memories.

To think that he had almost forgotten their faces, after just a few years…

"SEARCHING," the database announced. "PLEASE WAIT."

"Let me guess," Tails spoke up, while they waited. "Anyone who comes in here gets scanned."

"As I said, its all automatic," Rouge answered in the affirmative. "The doctors don't do anything. A covert bug copies, routes, and sorts all the information, updating itself as necessary. There are cameras outside, too. Didn't you see them?"

Actually, he hadn't.

"No, I didn't," he admitted, with a shrug.

"Neither does anyone else."

"Rouge…" he began, a little assiduously. "Did it ever bother you? Did you ever get second thoughts, working for GUN?"

The pretty bat tilted her head in faux thought. "Not really."

"Not at all?" he pressed.

"Look," she finally replied. "Am I supposed to have some kind of do-or-die love for all those people out there?"

She gestured with her hand to all the mobians outside.

"I'm nothing like them, and I don't want to be like them," she continued. "I want a warm shower every night and a big queen sized bed to sleep on… I want jewels and adventure and the freedom to chase after my dreams. You think I'd have those opportunities living in some jungle in Cat Country? Or working for 'His Majesty the King?'"

Tails frowned at the implication, even if it was true. In the Kingdom of Acorn, the nobility still had an iron grip on power. Rouge's breed of mobian was rare outside Cat Country. It didn't help that she was female. The most she could have realistically hoped for was to marry into a noble family. Even as important as Tails knew he was to the war, he was sure that if he were a girl, he'd never have been given the titles and authority he currently held.

"I can see what you mean…"

"So I worked for the humans," Rouge said, nodding at him. "Just like you did. And they weren't what you'd heard, were they?"

"They did look down on mobians."

"They **are** twice our height," Rouge joked, a little weakly. "Yes, they do have that hang up. But to them, one of us is the same as any other. It didn't matter what breed I was or what my sex was. As long as I did my job, I was free to do whatever I wanted. I even got to vote. To VOTE."

"Isn't that the height of stupidity?" she asked, shaking her head. "That **humans** let mobians vote before **our own people** did? So, no, I never regretted working for GUN. They've treated me better than anyone else would have."

Tails could see what she meant.

"What about you?" she asked. "Did you…?"

"Regret it?" he answered. "No. I did worry sometimes, about whether I was doing the right thing in the long run. But most of the time I never thought about it. Working for GUN… it was like a dream come true. I could pursue any project I wanted. I didn't even mind the deadlines!"

"Lost yourself in the work?" Rouge guessed. "You don't seem the type."

He smiled, wistfully. "Sometimes I would lose track of time… I'd forget about eating, sleeping, drinking… anything except the discovery. The next mystery to unlock. The next idea to take and give form to."

Rouge chuckled softly, but quickly looked away.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing… just, hearing you say that, reminded me of him," Rouge paused, but elaborated. "Robotnick. He was the same way. He'd go days without eating or sleeping."

"Really?" the comparison didn't shock or disgust the two tailed fox. In a way, it was sort of flattering. Despite his madness, the Eggman was still the world's greatest mind. He consistently built things that Tails could only stare at in awe and respect. In everything save his motives, the fox couldn't help but look up to that terrible man.

"After that, you'd think he'd eat a feast or something," Rouge mused, remembering the times she had spent working for him, undercover for GUN. "But all he ever ate was salad and fruit."

"Salad and fruit?"

"I think he was a vegetarian," Rouge said with a laugh. "Thank goodness Snively was there. At least he has some red meat stored away."

He gave her a sly look. "How'd you get them to trust you back then, anyway?"

Rouge's only reply was a sultry smile. It made for a funny image, but Tails knew she was avoiding the question. There was no chance that Rouge had just batted her eyes and gotten the Eggman to just accept her as part of his organization. She had to have done something to impress the madman. Or maybe it wasn't Eggman that she'd seduced, but someone who functioned as the tyrant's strong right arm…

He let the subject drop, sensing he wasn't about to get an honest answer, not that he should have expected one in the first place. Rouge was a spy, after all; he couldn't expect her to share all the tricks of her trade. Instead, he turned to the screen and the computer which had narrowed down and finished its search.

"That her?"

"I think so," he said, staring at the profile. It was a 98 percent match according to the search program. To the kitsune, there could be no doubt that it was her. Rosemary Prower.

Like her husband, she had a darker color of fur than her adopted son (in fact, Tails' light ochre was a rare color outside of the kitsune breed), with long reddish brown hair and light blue eyes the color of ice. Rouge clicked the profile, and a number of pictures appeared from different angles. Another window displayed medical and physiological statistics. If all that weren't proof enough, there was the name of the woman.

"Marie," Rouge said it aloud. "Not a very good alias."

"She isn't using her last name," Tails observed. The entry just read: 'the Fox' in lieu of a surname. The Prowers had been landed gentry before and during the war. Even if they had taken their name from him, he was sure that they had one of their own. If Rosemary wasn't using a surname, then that meant…

"They're blending in with the lower classes," Rouge deduced, thinking along the same lines. "We've got enough contact information. It shouldn't be hard to find her now."

Tails nodded, slowly.

"This was all so easy for you, wasn't it?" he asked.

Rouge gave a dismissive laugh. "This **is** my job you're talking about, but… it would have been harder without that photograph."

"I owe you," he admitted.

"Yes," Rouge replied, sitting down on the couch and crossing her long legs. "You do."

"What do you want?" he asked, finally tearing his eyes away from the image of his foster mother. Rouge had accomplished in an hour what he had been spending days trying to do. He wasn't about to inflate his own ego: without her, he may well have never found the two mobians he had come here to find.

"Let's see…" Rouge blithely tapped her chin, pretending to think over her reward. "You already owe me how much for my job, before?"

"One hundred thousand credits," Tails reminded her. "If your information is accurate."

"It always is. And the money **is** nice," the bat concluded with a sarcastic tone. "But unlike before, this was a personal job, so I'd like something special."

"You sound like you know what you want..."

"I do. I've heard that you manufacture a very specific type of focusing crystal… used to amplify high powered beam weapons or something like that." She saw him about to explain. "I don't need to know the details. What matters is that these crystals are very rare and very expensive. I want one."

Tails started to open his mouth, intending to explain why he couldn't.

"Don't say 'I can't do that' or 'that's a national secret,'" Rouge warned him. "Because we both know you can place the order and have it made in less than a week."

"F… fine," he conceded. "I trust that's all?"

Rouge nodded happily. "That's all!"

"Good…" he sighed. "Because…"

"'That's all,' is what I'd like to say," Rouge continued, cutting him off. "But there's actually more."

The kitsune's half lidded stare did nothing to hide his displeasure.

"Why don't you have a seat?" Rouge softly patted the cushion next to her on the couch. How she could extort someone and flirt with them in the same breath, Tails couldn't imagine. The fox turned, grabbed a chair, and sat down in that instead.

"What else?" he asked, settling into the inevitable.

"I'll admit that I was a bit surprised when I got your letter," Rouge began, examining her nails. "I didn't know it was you, of course. Not at first. But the request came from the Knothole Ministry of the Interior, and I know you like to work through them."

"How?" he had to ask.

"You killed one of our men," she explained, not missing a beat. Tails' eyebrows raised a fraction.

"And how did you know that?"

"That you killed him? It was a guess on my part. But he worked in your department and then disappeared." Rouge smiled at his ruthlessness. "We never found the body. Mind telling me where you disposed of it?"

Tails felt his blood begin to boil. That she knew this much already…!

"Matter incinerator," he answered. "And for your information, your man was killed because he tried to shoot me."

"Did you give him the gun?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not to me," Rouge replied, waving her hand. "It wasn't hard to look into things and find out some of what happened. I wouldn't have believed it myself, but then I remembered what you were like when you thought I had betrayed the city. You were a little scary back there."

He looked away, ashamed.

"But I'm freelance now, and I decided to take the job," Rouge said, smiling at him. "Besides, with that much money at stake, it's unprofessional to question my employer's moral fiber. So I did what you asked, and I checked up on Knuckles and the Chaotix."

"What did you find?" Tails asked, still pointedly not looking straight at her. "And how did you find them him so quickly?"

Rouge leaned forward a bit, still grinning smugly. "Knuckles is like you… and Sonic and Shadow. All of you simply reek of Chaos Energy. For whatever reason, my echolocation seems to be particularly sensitive to the energy that flows in and out of you. Just like with the Chaos Emeralds. When I concentrate, I can literally see you from miles away. You shine like diamonds in a bed of coal."

"I could find any of you with my eyes closed," she concluded. "If I wanted to."

"I see…"

"As for what I found," Rouge continued, "Well, let me say that Knuckles was about as friendly as always. He even took a few swipes at me. But I confirmed that he currently has one of the Super Emeralds on his person. Espio probably has another."

"Probably?"

"Knuckles let that fact slip during our fight. I suppose he could have been trying to throw me off, but I doubt it."

"He could have found and hidden more of them," Tails proposed.

"And risk someone like me digging them up?"

"…point…"

"So they have two," Rouge said, pointing at him. "The questions are: do you want them? And how many do you already have?"

Tails shuffled in his seat, crossing his legs and stiffening his back.

"I'm not sure how to answer questions like that…"

"Let me help you with them, then." The bat girl rested her head on her right hand, leaning leisurely against the side of the couch. "A month or so ago, the Super Emeralds mysteriously go missing. Either they were stolen, or they faded into the Special Zone. Either way… Knuckles and his friends go out to gather them up, keeping them out of the hands of bad people like myself."

"Fast forward two weeks," Rouge said. "You ask me to spy on the Chaotix and find out how many Super Emeralds they have. Vector also happens to be visiting Knothole to discuss this same matter with Princess Sally. You also take this opportunity to send your ship, the _Blue Typhoon_, into front line combat around Starlight City. One look at the ship, much less an in depth scan, reveals that it is designed to use a large beam weapon."

"I don't see how that's significant…" Tails interrupted. "I'm not the first to put a beam weapon on a capital ship."

"Of course not," Rouge acknowledged, "But the _Blue Typhoon_ is the smallest capital ship built around one. Most ships that size can't generate that level of power. While at GUN, you did a lot of research into Chaos Energy as a power source… I know you have two Chaos Emeralds available. You put one in that ship after the fight with the Battlebirds, didn't you?"

"Speculation."

"Then why did the ship test fire its beam weapon after the battle, but not during it?"

"Technical reasons," Tails answered, but didn't elaborate.

"Here's what I think," Rouge let him wriggle out of that debate as a matter of courtesy. "When the Super Emeralds disappeared a month ago, you saw this as an opportunity. The echidnas are neutral in the war, so you didn't feel bad about finding one of their Emeralds and keeping it for yourself. This left you with three, two from the Mobian set, and one from Angel Island."

She crossed her legs again, switching them, one over the other.

"You then made the rather public move of ordering the _Blue Typhoon_ into action. You planned to transfer one Mobian Chaos Emerald into the ship, using its reactivation as an excuse. Given Knothole's power generation problems, you probably wanted to also take the Chaos Emerald currently powering the city shield. With two Chaos Emeralds in your hands, instead of just one, you could shuffle them around as a cover for your use of one – or more – Super Emeralds."

"Now," Rouge continued, smiling at Tails' discomfort. "I don't know what you plan to do with all these Emeralds… Maybe you're trying to go 'super,' maybe you're just researching them, I don't know. But I have a good nose for a cover up, and I can smell a conspiracy from a mile away."

She saw him turn his head slightly, evaluating her with midnight blue eyes.

"There's that scary look again," she remarked, without a hint of trepidation. "Just what are you up to, Miles Prower?"

"'…Up to?'" he asked. "'…Conspiracy?'"

His eyes narrowed, and he slowly turned around. Most of the time the young kitsune put up a friendly and good natured front, but challenged, backed up against a wall, a serious and determined expression left little doubt as to his intentions. This was a mobian who had faced many enemies in his short life, and who had seen more than those ten times his age. He was a boy who could wield the power of a god.

Miles Prower closed his eyes and gave a disapproving huff.

"They only **thing** I'm '_up to_' …is ensuring the safety of the mobian people. You think Sonic follows the news? Do you think Sally tells him where to go and what to do anymore? For years, **I've** been the one organizing how things are done. He depends on me to cover his back and take care of the details…" Still seated, Tails rested his hands on his knees, but his tails coiled and uncoiled dangerously behind him. "There is no conspiracy. _I'm only doing what I've always done_."

"What a cute way of saying you make your own rules and that you know best," Rouge quipped. "I'd hate to see what you'd have done if GUN ever actually brought Sonic in for questioning."

Tails wrapped the knuckles of his right hand against his knee.

"So," he said. "You've woven together an interesting story, Rouge. Do you think anyone would believe it?"

She answered his question with one of her own. "**Do** you want me to steal their Emeralds for you?"

A long pause followed.

"No."

"Oh? Why not?"

"What matters is that I control who has access to a complete set," he relented, explaining the inherent logic behind his motives. "Far too often, our enemies have gathered the Emeralds together and used them against us. That… **will not** happen again. I won't let it."

"You won't be able to keep your secrets forever," Rouge cautioned him.

He glared at her.

"Just a bit of friendly advice," she added. "I won't tell anyone, but I want something in return."

"Name it," he growled.

If anything, Rouge's predatory smile grew.

* * *

Sonic landed on his feet, unscathed despite the flames. The trip through the Warp Ring had been jarring and much more abrupt than he was used to. His body paid the dividend, but any lingering soreness quickly faded as he took in the view around him. Sonic had seen more than a few facets of the Special Zone in his time collecting Chaos Emeralds, so he knew some of what to expect.

This… was totally different.

He found himself next to Shadow and Metal, standing inside an immaculate courtyard frozen in time. A dozen trees sporting thick, gnarled trunks stood arranged in a circle around them. Other trees, brightly colored, stood in contrast. Nothing moved. Even the ground below was motionless: not a blade of grass tilted in the wind, nor a pebble shifted underfoot.

The three hedgehogs, two organic one otherwise, took in the scene, slowly turning around to try and identify where they were. The sky overhead was as frozen as the ground below; the clouds never moved though the sun shined brightly in the sky. A nearby fountain spurted droplets of water into the air that hung suspended and motionless in freefall.

It was like being trapped in a picture or a painting.

Sonic turned around. Behind him, he could see a vast landscape of jungles and mountains, leading up to an ocean, but it looked hazy and indistinct… like an optical illusion. It took a few seconds to realize they weren't just on some mountain retreat: they were on a floating island in the sky. Turning back towards the others, Sonic saw Shadow approaching one of the ancient olive trees. The ultimate life form placed a hand on the trunk, and with a flash the world unfroze.

"Man, where are we?" Sonic wondered aloud.

"Unknown," Metal replied in a monotone voice as he looked up at the sky. "GPS is off line. There do not appear to be stars in the sky above us."

"Parallel world?" Sonic guessed. He'd been to a few.

"We're in a pocket universe," Shadow reasoned. "Separate from the normal Special Zone, but with similar rules. It did not activate until we arrived."

"So someone took one of these Zones…"

"A Special Zone, but one no longer in synch with our sets of Chaos Emeralds," Shadow speculated.

"One of these Zones," Sonic said again. "And turned it into a palace?"

"That would not be inaccurate," Metal agreed. "Our objective is ahead of us."

Shadow started walking. "I think I know the way…"

Metal and Sonic followed, the latter with only a little complaint. Even with time unfrozen, Sonic felt a certain unearthly tranquility to the place. The gentle cords of running water filled his ears, and a soothing wind blew over the lush gardens. Ahead of them, a strange and majestic complex rose up, sporting a multitude of domes and arches, flanked by tall minarets. It was architecture alien to anything he had seen before, from the tiered pyramids of the ancient Echidna and dingo to the time lost acropolises of the humans.

Curiously, there were no humanoid statues or pictures of faces, as there had been in the Labyrinth Zone. As the trio approached the buildings, they saw plain walls and free standing spires, adorned solely with a strange language and complex geometric patterns. Approaching the palace, it grew more colorful, taking the place of the thinning gardens and greenery.

The blue hedgehog silently wished Tails or even Knuckles were around.

Both of his friends knew much more about ancient civilizations than he did, and more than once they had translated ancient writings literally on the spot. Sonic had no idea where either of them learned so much, but both seemed to enjoy the study. He'd even caught the two of them having a long academic argument once about the "Fourth Civilization" or something like that. It was probably one of the reasons why Tails and Knuckles got along so well, though the latter usually expressed frustration and annoyance when the young kitsune babbled on about his 'technology fetish' (as the echidna called it).

Neither were present now, so Sonic had little reference for what he saw. Shadow led them down a path and into an open area with sandy colored pillars. Overhead, semi-circular arches leapt from one pillar to the next, creating what must have been a hundred little four sided domes in the ceiling. It was cooler in the shade, and easier on the eyes. Pivoting, Sonic saw gardens to his left, past the field of pillars, and a gentle fountain to the right.

Something else also caught his eye.

Straying from the three man tour guide, Sonic briskly jogged over to one of the fountains. It had looked a bit like a bird feeder at first glance, but he quickly realized that there was a velvety pillow perched on the top. Water pooled out from marble slots below, decorated with an intricate leaf pattern. On top of the violet pillow, shaded by a nearby overhang, he saw a plain golden ring.

In this situation, most mobians – most sentient beings in fact – would have thought long and hard about what to do here. He was in an unknown place, built by unknown powers, supposedly in the pursuit of an insane wizard. A certain degree of cautiousness and discretion wasn't out of the norm. Sonic, however, was not like most mobians. He'd been instinctively grabbing golden rings for most of his life (that he could remember), and furthermore, he thought it would make an interesting trinket to remember the trip by. If worse came to worse, it could even give it to Sally as a make up gift, affording him the opportunity to do something _really_ _crazy_ and _naughty_ at least once.

So he grabbed it.

"Hey, blue hedgehog! You better not be taking a piss in there!"

"Ha. Ha. Very funny." Sonic ran back to his two dysfunctional teammates. Shadow in particular. "Maybe you should be a comedian instead of a psychopath. Do you really know where we're going?"

"Would you rather just run around randomly?" Shadow asked with a scowl.

"Actually, yes. Yes I would."

"It is what he usually does," Metal spoke up.

Shadow rolled his eyes and gave a low growl. "We're getting close. The main palace is just up ahead."

They walked past more pillars, and as they did, Sonic grew a small smile.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"What about now?"

"Must you be so annoying?!" Shadow whirled, flames in his eyes. "Just walk quietly!"

"Hmm…" Sonic pursed his lips and cupped his chin in thought. "You know… you make a poor Tails."

"…"

"But you make an ok Knuckles," the hedgehog draped his arm over Metal's chrome shoulders. "So I guess it evens out!"

"I want to kill you," the machine intoned.

"I know, old chum." Sonic patted the robot on the head. "I know."

"Enough of this foolishness!" Shadow snarled, starting off at a quicker pace. "Fine! We'll walk faster."

"Thank you!" Sonic followed behind.

Metal's eyes just glowed hotly, and he took the rear.

They came to a large palace door, flanked by more of the plain patterns and writing. It was otherwise unadorned. It was, however, guarded by a portcullis of thick metal. The two hedgehogs exchanged unspoken questions as to which one should cut through, as there appeared to be no obvious way in otherwise.

"I will handle this," Metal said, and the robot seized the metal bars before anyone could respond. At his touch, the portcullis began to warp and distort, and not from any display of strength. The metal twisted and ran up Metal's arms, seeping into his body just before he ripped what remained out of place. With a heave, the robot tossed aside what remained, and absorbed the bits still stuck to his arms and hands.

"New trick?" Sonic asked.

"You will learn your folly as you die," Metal replied with a hydraulic hiss. "Not before."

"Heh!" Sonic took on a more appreciative look. "Nice of you to at least try and stay competitive with me!"

Metal glared death rays at its hated rival; Sonic just smirked.

Then they both realized Shadow was missing, and the two raced inside to keep up. Shadow lad already opened the palace doors and walked halfway through the hall that met them. It was a stark contrast with the outside. Inside the building, the walls were covered in shades of blue from a million ceramic tiles, each the size of a fingertip. A kaleidoscope of geometric shapes crossed overhead all along the ceiling. The floor was flawless pink marble.

A warbling fountain stood in the center of the great empty space, with running water flanking it as it cascaded alongside two winding staircases. It was breathtaking in its simple brilliance and its mastery of completely inanimate shape and form. A marble statue of a fire, detailed and realistic, ran along the outside edge and reflected in the clear water. Shadow walked past the fountain and the staircases, deeper into the hall. Parallel pools joined the trio on their right and left, running from one end to the other.

Gradually, something became clear up ahead of them at the end of the hall.

It was another room, circular, with circular grooves in the floor. The scale of it was vast, comparable to the Archive back in Labyrinth Zone. The walls were white and light blue in a series of complex fractal patterns. Looking up, Sonic saw the open sky. Walking slowly again, Shadow approached the center of the room. Once there, in the absolute center, he closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

"The servers are the seven…"

"NO," a booming voice filled the chamber, interrupting the chant. "THOSE WORDS ARE FORBIDDEN."

The floor shook, the circular grooves widening and then splitting. Sonic had to jump to avoid falling between the cracks, only to find an instant later that the ground also seemed to be tilting. Jumping again and again, he ended up at the center of the room with Shadow; the one spot of floor that didn't seem to be splitting or shifting. Metal took the easy route, and activated the rocket motors on his feet while tilting the jet intake built into his chest. He floated casually in midair.

"THE SEVEN SHALL NOT SERVE."

"You had to go and say that, didn't you?" Sonic muttered, just lout enough for Shadow to hear. His only response was a coarse grunt.

Standing back to back, the two hedgehogs watched as the room morphed. A great arching section of the floor rose up, while opposite it another section fell away. In a perpendicular axis, another section raised as yet another fell, followed by another on a different angle, and then yet another and another. Starting slowly, they soon picked up speed, arching overhead and then dipping below. Looking over the edge of the flat surface he and Shadow stood on, Sonic saw a sheer drop into darkness.

"Revolving around us…" Shadow spoke up, realizing what was happening. "We're… inside a giant armillary sphere with six axis of rotation…"

"And… I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"It would be pointless explaining it to you," Shadow replied coldly. Before he could say anything more, the walls gave a great shudder, and the patterns of blue tinted tiles lit up. Blue flame quickly turned orange and red, engulfing the walls from top to bottom. High above, the flames churned and coalesced into a ball of fire and light.

"I AM THE IFRIT," the booming voice from before declared from all around them. "HIGH PRIEST OF SOLARIS. WHO DARES DEFILE THIS MOST HOLY PRISON?"

"Hey there!" Sonic waved up at the giant flaming orb. "Sonic the Hedgehog. We're looking for a freaky lookin' guy named Ixis Naugus. Got a long white beard, red eyes, claw for a hand, likes to wear a somewhat queer shade of purple… you seen anyone like that, man?"

For a few seconds, the burning orb pulsed in midair, baffled by the request.

"NO," came the booming reply.

"So much for your great 'I see dead people' senses," Sonic said, jabbing Shadow in the side with his elbow.

"Ifrit!" Shadow yelled up at the flames. "What are you? Are you the only one here?"

"I GUARD THE FLAMES OF DISASTER. WE, SEALED BY MELCHISEDEC'S COVENANT, BELOVED OF SOLARIS; NONE SHALL SET FLAME FREE!"

"Well!" Sonic gave a hearty thumbs up. "We'll just leave you to that and be on our merry way…"

"INSIGNIFICANT GNAT. NONE MAY LEAVE THIS PLACE ALIVE. SO IT IS WRITTEN! BECOME ASH AND DISSAPPEAR."

The fires all around them grew in intensity, the air becoming swelteringly hot. The flaming orb otherwise did nothing, preferring to watch as it cooked those trapped inside the cylindrical room. With the floor swirling in a multitude of directions, it didn't exactly leave a lot of options. Metal Sonic hovered nearby, far less put off by the local environmental conditions. The other two hedgehogs were not so fortunate.

"Fight?" Sonic asked.

As if he had to.

"Fight," Shadow agreed.

* * *


	25. Strange Bedfellows iii

* * *

The shop had a little chime that warbled when someone entered. It was a sound almost lost amid the steady tik-tok beats of the clocks inside. The small workshop was full of them: a line of grandfather clocks beat out a deliberate rhythm, the wall behind them decorated with a multitude of smaller timepieces. The methodical tune they made sounded like a disjointed song; a melody of metal arms, turning in time.

Rouge found it a little off putting, but Tails seemed to grow more quietly excited by the mechanics of it all. They had identified "Marie" as a teacher at one of the District's nightschools, where she worked as part of an "acculturation" program for newcomers who came to Chemical Plant looking for work. From there, it had been easy to backtrack and see where she lived. It was a mated business and residence, run by her husband, a man with the clever alias of "Andreas."

Following her lead, and impressed by her abilities, Tails had soon forgotten all about how she had extorted him earlier. He'd made quite a fuss at the time, but they both knew that she delicately skirted that line between inconvenience and imposition. She hadn't asked for anything that she knew he couldn't, and wouldn't, really mind giving. With payments decided, he patiently let her work her magic.

This close to the end, Rouge thought briefly about the whole scheme.

She had certainly struck a cord with him, and if anything, he seemed more impressed than angry or annoyed at having someone see through what he planned. The kitsune, Miles Prower, was quite a different animal than she had initially expected. That little run in they had had before had opened her eyes to the fact. She had always pictured him as just being Sonic's helpful sidekick, giving him pointers on where to go and occasionally assisting with some techy problem. She never gave much thought to what he wanted, or what he did, when he wasn't with the blue hedgehog hero.

Her talk with Tempest had been invaluable in the planning of the resulting enterprise. It was really only then that she had put together all the pieces of information she had gathered together, forming a coherent and believable whole. Before that little chat, it had been almost too shocking to contemplate. Finally talking to him, confronting him, she was absolutely certain in her conclusions. There was a determined, convicted side to him that he kept well hidden.

It suited her purposes nicely.

Inside the shop, she let Tails assume the lead. This was for him, after all. There was an older vulpine sitting near the counter, fixing one of the wall mounted clocks. It was analog, like virtually everything in the store. Rouge could guess that the pocket watches and 'antique' clocks were fairly popular among the well off, if only as a status symbol. More parochial types, with little access to reliable power supplies, probably also saw the benefits.

The craftsman looked up and Rouge saw right away that he had a prosthetic left eye. It wasn't very attractive, but it was functional: a round eyepiece covered part of the fox's face, colored black with a single line of glass in the middle. Behind it, optics switched and cycled. Reaching up to his eye, the older mobian used his middle finger to slide a black coverslip into place over the lens. Now all black, it looked almost like an eyepatch. Standing, he then appraised the two arrivals with a single keen dark blue eye.

"Can I help you?" he asked, in a firm authoritative voice.

"Are you Andreas?" Tails asked, assuming a firm tone of his own. His voice wasn't as deep at the older mobian's, having a younger more lyrical tenor tone to it, but if anything it left his words feeling more expressive than intended.

"I am," the older mobian responded. "Do I know you?"

"I'm Miles," Tails stated, simply. "Amadeus."

Andreas' one good eye widened slightly, and he subtly tilted his head to look behind this young upstart. It only took a moment to realize what he was looking for, there.

"I don't know what you're…" he started to say.

Then Tails' namesakes un-fused, turning back to their natural state. It was a little strange seeing it. Rouge still couldn't understand how he did it, but then, she didn't know how anyone could fly using their tails either (which Tails obviously did). Instead of baffling herself with the details, the bat girl just chalked it up to general weirdness and chaos based superpowers… which she had seen more than her share of over the years.

"It really **is** me," Tails assured him. "You are Amadeus, aren't you?"

"Miles," he said, satisfied, but not with any great relief. The two stood there, facing each other for a long time. To herself, Rouge began to worry if there was some sort of bad blood between them. How many years had it been, since Tails had thought his parents killed by the Battlebird Armada?

"Yes," Amadeus finally said. "I am."

Neither moved an inch, not until Tails haltingly held out his hand.

"Sir," he said.

Amadeus took the offered hand in his own sealing them in a handshake. For a moment, it seemed that was all the reunion would amount to. Then the older vulpine pulled Tails in closer and wrapped one arm around his shoulder. It was a somewhat stiff embrace, hardly what Rouge had expected to see, but it was starting to become clear that Amadeus wasn't the more emotionally expressive of creatures. The hug lasted only a moment, and then they parted ways.

"I'm surprised to see you here, boy… or," he corrected himself. "You must be old enough now… Miles."

"I'm more surprised that you're alive," Tails replied. "What happened? Why didn't you contact me?"

"That's… it's a long story, Miles," Amadeus walked over to the front of the store, closing and locking the door. When he came back, he sighed. "Your mother will want to see you. We can explain it then."

He led them to the back of the store, but not to the stairs leading up. Instead, he walked past that, to the basement door tucked under the staircase. The door was heavy and strong, built to take a fairly serious pounding. It opened up only to reveal a flight of stone steps, well maintained and well lit.

As they walked down, Rouge saw a glimmer of emotion flash across Tails' face.

"You ok?" she leaned over to whisper.

"I honestly don't know…" he whispered back.

She could tell he was conflicted about this meeting, and that he probably had been for some time. Rouge could sort of understand why. She'd often imagined meeting her mother again, after so many years (assuming she was even still alive). She barely remembered her – the old bat's face was hazy and plain looking, after a decade's absence from her mind.

Rouge had never really gotten along well with her mother. Tuyet Nu My had been her name. She had chosen to stay behind in Cat Country with the rest of the Phyllostomid Tribe, living in (what Rouge now considered) fetid jungle squalor. A blood drinker from the Religious Caste, Rouge remembered her mother as stern and cruel, always ready to beat her disobedient daughter with a rod of sharp edged reeds.

Her father, Quoc Quan Than, had been the only light in that place. He often went to trade with the humans, and Rouge couldn't remember a time when she didn't admire his sharp wit and sense of adventure. He always brought back some little trinket or another from his trips, and very often, it was a little gemstone or piece of jewelry. Rouge still had his gifts, and they were still her most treasured possessions. He was the one who took her away from the savage life of the Tribe and brought her to civilization, where she could grow up and be whatever she wanted to.

Losing him had been devastating…

After he died, she rarely ever entertained the thought of going to see her lost mother. The meeting would have been awkward and likely unfriendly. Rouge could see some of that here, between Tails and his father. They had parted ways a decade ago, the same amount of time between Rouge and her mother. Amadeus struck her as a hard nosed military man, strict and short on praise. She could also tell that Tails admired him, nonetheless. For someone whose temperament leads them to immerse themselves in work, perhaps that was only natural.

At the bottom of the steps, Rouge saw "Marie," or Rosemary, rather. She looked just like the program had predicted, and just like the surveillance scans indicated. Wearing a lilac colored dress, she looked good despite being in her forties (just past mobian middle age), but Rouge could also see a look of surprise and a hint of fear in her eyes when they came downstairs.

"Do not worry, my dear," Amadeus spoke up as he led them away from the stairs. The basement was mostly empty, except for some older clocks and boxes of spare parts. A screen and a storage room were also obvious. Rosemary stood by one of those now, a loot of worry slowly fading, only to be replaced by one of shock and joy.

"Miles!" she gasped, running towards them, her past concern forgotten.

She received her adopted son with much more warmth and undisguised affection, and Rouge saw him close his eyes in silent, triumphant elation as they hugged. For her part, the she-bat couldn't help but wonder just what Rosemary was doing down here, and why she looked so frightened when someone came to interrupt her. Amadeus, though far less obvious about it, also made a quick glance towards the store room and the screened off area…

"My love, you've grown so much! Look at you!" Rosemary gushed over him, holding him at arm's length. "Oh, Miles! But..."

"What?" the kitsune asked, eyes almost tearing up.

"What did you do to your hair?" she tried to smooth over his bangs. "It's a complete mess! Amadeus, dear, do you have a comb?"

"Again with the hair…" Tails mumbled as his one time adopted mother tried (in vain) to separate his three hair bangs. They were pretty resilient.

"You look so handsome!" Rosemary smoothed out the hair behind his head, (which he normally cut, ever since that first adventure with Sonic, since it tended to get natty and wild) and took a long look at him. He smiled belatedly at the motherly praise.

"You look great too…" he said, holding her. It was clear that he'd started to say 'mom' at the end of the sentence, but couldn't quite manage.

"Rosemary," her husband said. "We have to tell him."

"What about _her_?" the woman turned her eyes to Rouge, and they suddenly began to look rather keen. The bat girl hadn't really given her presence much thought, except that it would be amusing to watch what happened.

"She's with me," Tails spoke up, before Rouge got the chance. "You can trust her."

Miles' support was unexpected, and Rouge blinked a few times in incredulous surprise. Did he really think he could trust her? No: that didn't seem like him, not the him that she thought she knew. He had to simply be putting his parents at ease. After all, she had seen this much already. Besides, maybe he did trust her in a way. She already had more than enough to blackmail him, and she had already agreed not to. Maybe it wasn't so much 'trust' as a test. She couldn't well do anything to the Prower family without putting their own deal (and perhaps her life) in jeopardy.

"Is she your…?" Rosemary ventured to say, a little anxiously.

"Lover?" Rouge interrupted, sidling up to her 'boyfriend.' "Most definitely."

A tremble ran down the kitsune's body at the close, all too intimate contact.

"Yes. Well…" he muttered. "That is to say…"

"I'm happy for you both!" Rosemary said, though to Rouge she didn't exactly sound very pleased with the match up. Tails probably missed the inflection, since he was still trying to compose himself. Amadeus said nothing, instead choosing to look silently skeptical.

"Rouge, please."

"Sure thing, loverboy…" she let him go, and he visibly relaxed.

"We need to talk," Tails said, getting to the heart of things. "I'd like to know… a lot of things, but… why…? Why are you here? Why didn't you… contact me?"

Amadeus retrieved a quartet of folding chairs, first giving one to his wife, and then their two guests. When all four of them were seated, the two older mobians glanced at one another, trying to determine who would answer and probably what they would say. Rosemary ultimately looked down at her hands, and it became clear that, for now, Amadeus would do the explaining for them.

"Miles," he said. "How much do you know of us, from the war?"

"Next to nothing," the younger fox admitted. "You served in the army, but there aren't any records where."

"Did you speak to any of the veterans of Mobotropolis?"

"No…" Tails admitted. "I spoke to the King. To the General Staff…"

"Records can be changed, Miles. …By those who wish to bury history." Amadeus took a deep breath.

"I served as Lord General of the Army for four years under King Maximilian I, directly subordinate to the Warlord at the time, Kodos, and Chief of the Army, D'Coolette. In that time, I fought from the Eastern Shores and the Overlander colonies to the Siege of Mobotropolis itself. I saw the greatest wartime loss of life since the Civil Wars. I saw our people rally, from the brink of destruction and defeat. I saw… our survival… resting on the shoulders of a human, who claimed to wish for peace and coexistence."

"Robotnick." Tails snarled.

"Yes. Julian," Amadeus said the name with clear familiarity. "Understand that he was our savior, then. We thought him a man who forsook the genocidal madness of his own people, his own family, to ensure that Mobians survived free, in their own lands. Many of us thought him a new Nate Morgan, a human who could transcend race and bring us a new golden age."

Amadeus took another deep breath, as if the recollection pained him. Rosemary placed a hand on his own, giving him a gentle supportive squeeze. He slowly nodded in appreciation.

"Miles," he finally said. "The reason my name was wiped from the records… was because I aided Julian during the coup of 3230."

"… what…?" Tails asked, a cold tone entering his voice.

"The King was unpopular, and Julian was a war hero…" Amadeus tried to explain, his one good eye taking on a distant look. "How we hated Maximilian… he had purged many of our friends, imprisoned those who served him but failed to meet his unrealistic expectations. His meddling during the war cost thousands of lives. He promised us glory, Miles… and led us to a charnel house…"

Tails sat, ramrod straight, listening.

Amadeus continued, determined to finish, "Julian banished Kodos, and most of us knew he had gotten rid of that madman, Ixis Naugus, too. He saved us on the battlefield, and… so when he began plotting a coup, to replace the monarchy with a democracy, like the humans had…. we believed him. I believed him. He told us that first, we would form a ruling oligarchy, and from there, we would slowly introduce reforms. We would make peace with the humans, because they had always feared and hated the Acorn Kings."

"You…" Tails bit off what he was about to say, switching instead to, "So you went into exile?"

"We had no choice," Rosemary replied, speaking up for her husband. "Miles, please understand… the royal system was corrupt, broken, wrong-headed. It was King Maximilian's greed that led us to war in the first place. We thought we were doing what was best for our people…"

"After the coup," Amadeus picked up. "It quickly became clear that the Oligarchy wasn't about to relinquish power. Soon, Julian built a new army, one that answered only to him. He began rounding mobians up, converting them… the other oligarchs were picked off, and the war started again. I took Rosemary, and we fled to the southwest."

"It was there that we found you," his wife added. "Now you see why we couldn't contact you, when we found out you were alive."

Tails processed this, a distraught look on his face. Is whole life, he had been fighting Robotnick. Now, to find out that the only mobians he considered family… that they had helped that same man seize power… he looked nothing less than shell shocked. For a moment, watching him, Rouge felt the impulse to reach over and… do what? She wasn't sure. Physical contact wasn't something he responded well to, she had learned.

Tails' tails glanced across the floor, cutting several long grooves in the hardwood.

"The Battlebirds…" he finally said. "Their records led me here."

Rouge could see what he meant to say: 'Don't tell me you were working with them, too.'

Amadeus fielded the question with some anxiousness. "After the attack, we… we had been told that you died. We worked for them for two years, and then they resettled us… they wanted to use us to spread propaganda. We… agreed. Rosemary's health was poor, and I needed to get her away from them."

"We went to Casino Night," Rosemary said. "A few months later, the Armada broke up. We didn't find out that you had taken them down… not until much later, and by then, you were working for the King himself."

"But the contact… with Admiral Tao…"

"Rosemary," Amadeus said. "You may as well show him."

The middle aged female nodded hesitantly, stood up, and walked to the screened off area of the basement.

"Show me what?" Tails asked.

His former step father coughed, catching his breath. "Admiral Tao and his Armada often smuggled up and down the coast. We had them bring in some supplies we needed. Printing equipment."

"Printing equipment?" Rouge repeated. "For…? Oh!"

"For what?" Tails obviously had trouble putting it all together. "What good is…?"

Rosemary returned, holding several pamphlets and newsletters. They seemed wholly unremarkable, up until she handed copies of them to her step-son and his batty 'girlfriend.' Tails read them quickly, a sense of realization dawning on his features. Rouge had already guessed what the printed materials were, even before she saw them up close.

The first was a paper depicting a conversation between a husband and wife. They were having a back and forth argument, ostensibly over the dinner table, about the role of the monarchy and government. The wife took the position (almost to the point of blindness and naiveté) that the King could do no wrong, that he had a divine right to rule, and that the monarchy was an indispensable part of the government. The husband, wiser and more worldly than his wife, argued that the monarchy was a burden, that it was obsolete, and that it had to be removed for the people to prosper.

Rouge was familiar with these bits of literature. They were circulated widely among the lower classes, especially, where an academic treatise would be less well received. The papers were always anonymous, and GUN had frequently worked to aid distribution, since it wasn't in the interests of the organization for the Kingdom of Acorn to grow too strong. It had always been human policy to oppose the rise of a hegemonic power on Mobius Major.

This particular piece that Rosemary offered them dealt less with the role of the King, and more with the corruption of the nobility and the abuses of landowners. It proposed a re-distribution of land and wealth, abolition of the guild system, and universal education for all classes. This sort of literature in particular always enraged the King and his supporters. The Royals could not rule without the nobility, and the nobility could not function without the guild system and the proper distribution of charters for land. For the mobian peasants and workers, however, reading this likely evoked some very different reactions.

"This is…" Tails finished reading through the piece, looking up at his step-parents and barely managing more than a whisper. "This is _seditious literature_…"

"Don't tell me," Rouge speculated, pointing first at Amadeus and then at Rosemary. "That you're Richard and Mary Roe?"

"Actually," the wife replied. "I am Richard."

Amadeus grumbled a bit. "I actually write for Mary Roe."

Rouge leaned back in her chair. This was just **soooo** juicy!

"It's an honor to meet you!" She reached over to shake Rosemary's hand. "I especially liked your conversation on the universality of mobian rights… You know, the humans…"

"This is **sedition**!!" Tails suddenly roared, standing up. The papers in his hands crumpled as they balled into fists. For all his furor, the young kitsune had tears in his eyes. Rosemary shrunk back, a look of shame clouding her face, but Amadeus stood and walked right up to the furious kitsune.

"Boy…"

"I've given my **life** fighting the man you helped raise to power! I've sold my **soul** helping the monarchy you want to tear down!" Miles snarled, canines bared as he stared his one time stepfather in the face. "Don't you **dare** call me **boy**."

"You'll have to ask yourself, Miles," Amadeus replied, coldly. "Do you serve the King? Or the people? What is more precious to you?"

Miles' tails bristled, flexing into a million blades and then back again.

Then, he took a step back, letting the crushed paper fall to his feet.

"Miles…" Rosemary started to say. "Please…"

"No," he cut her off. "You should have died. Both of you."

And then he turned and left.

* * *

"This guy isn't playing fair!"

Metal Sonic hovered in midair, patiently scanning the area. Currently less mobile, Shadow and Sonic seemed to be in the verge of panic (or at least, in Shadow's case, losing his proverbial cool). Metal's sensors had recorded an increase in average ambient temperature of more than one hundred percent. This had little to no effect on the robot's insulated chassis, but the robot's two partners were less well off.

Only their unusual, chaos-empowered resilience kept them from roasting in their own skins. It was a rather amusing image for Metal, and he quickly calculated whether he should just fly off and leave them… but then his Compliance Protocols kicked in, and he realized such idle speculation was a waste of CPU processing power. Doctor Robotnick had explicitly left orders to "aid Shadow the Hedgehog" and to "protect the interests of the Eggman Empire."

Worse, he had his Principal Directives to adhere to: "Directive One: the unit shall follow the orders of Doctor Robotnick. Directive Two: the unit shall not injure Doctor Robotnick or allow harm to come to him. Directive Three: the unit shall ensure its own existence." This clearly outlined the given orders, particularly "aid Shadow the Hedgehog," and placed them on a higher level of priority to Metal's own survival. More vexing still, "protect the interests of the Eggman Empire" was vague enough to cause a conflict.

What did: "protect the interests of the Eggman Empire" mean in this context?

Surely, ensuring the death of Sonic the Hedgehog would fall under protecting "the interests of the Eggman Empire." At the same time, it would also scuttle the peace process that was required to buy time and activate Perfect Defense Fortress Helios. Then there was the Last Order: "acquire or destroy any artifacts or technology," so long as it did not conflict with the previous two orders.

Metal Sonic turned his formidable suite of sensors to scanning, for one last time, the room around them. The fires seemed to be fed from an ethereal source, but their heat was very real. That same otherworldly energy source also seemed to be animating the spherical astrolabe that Sonic and Shadow found themselves trapped within. Extending his senses into the real of Chaos Waveforms, Metal saw a tapestry of lines fall over the room – indeed, this entire world.

Most importantly, it confirmed that certain patterns radiated from the glowing high high above them. This was the 'Ifrit' entity that Sonic had loudly declaimed as being 'unfair.' The rest of Sonic's tirade had amounted to: 'what kind of bad guy just sits there and roasts someone? Launch an attack or something. What a boring way to die!' Metal could only hope that, when the time finally came, he could kill Sonic in a particularly mundane fashion, if only to further piss the annoying hedgehog hero off.

'It seems there is no avoiding it,' Metal thought bitterly.

Holding out his right hand, he made the appropriate modifications. Metal and polymers morphed and reconfigured as nanites rebuilt his arm before overheating and slouching off in a shower of faint dust. Replacing most of the appendage was a blue and yellow cannon with a wide nozzle along with two tubes that wound up the rest of the arm.

"Shadow," he said, flying down to where the black hedgehog stood still in the center platform, thinking over his options. He gave Metal a quick look, as if to ask, 'What is it?'

"Do not move," Metal commanded, taking aim with his arm. A fountain of black material shot out, plastering Shadow literally head to toe. Wiping it out of his eyes and away from his mouth, Shadow sneered and winced as Metal flew around and shot him in the back, too.

"What are you doing?" he asked, and then he took a moment to stare at his hands. "Is this…?"

Metal ignored him and flew up to where Sonic was madly jumping from one spinning ring to the next, trying to get at the flying flaming orb above them. So intent was he on this, that he didn't even notice when Metal came up behind him and hosed him down. Yelping, the blue one quickly lost his footing and fell. The robot double zipped around, until he was face to face with the falling hedgehog, before spraying him over with more than a little gusto.

"You son of a…!" Sonic cursed, or started to. Then Metal grabbed his hand and flew up, swiftly and efficiently depositing him next to Shadow.

"Wipe it off your eyes and mouth," Shadow advised.

Not a surprise: Sonic started with his mouth.

"What is this gunk?" he yelled, just after clearing it away from his lips. "It smells like a month old chilidog!"

"Eiklar," Shadow said, holding up his hand. The sticky goo had hardened, forming a layer that covered his entire body.

"What supposed to mean anything to me?" Sonic asked, watching the stuff harden on him, too. "And do you know it looks like you have a racing stripe on your head?"

Shadow sighed. "You do, too."

"What?! Really?" Scrunching up his face in disgust, Sonic tried to wipe over the top of his head. "Is it a cool looking racing stripe?"

"I remember this material from the ARK," Shadow explained, hoping to bypass the whole 'racing stripe' discussion. "It's a sort of insulating foam, designed to protect people from radiation and temperature extremes in space."

"Ok, **now** you sound like Tails," Sonic replied. "So it keeps you cool, right? Cool!"

"We must target the spherical manifestation of chaos energy above us," Metal recommended, still hovering casually nearby. "My sensors indicate that it has non-solid eutectic properties. We must strike it at the same time, from opposing angles, to have any effect."

"You're slipping, Metal," Sonic said, sounding serious for once. "I actually understood that last part."

Shadow sighed. "I can't wait until this mission is over…"

Above them, the blazing Ifrit burned hot and oppressive, like a tiny sun.

"We are clear on our objectives," Metal said, looking upwards. "Let us proceed."

* * *

"That's it?"

"That's it."

He was just leaving. Just like that. Rouge followed, partly out of curiosity, and partly out of concern. If they were going to work together, she'd much rather not have him be as moody as Knuckles or as tortured and angst filled as Shadow. Besides, how he had left back there: it rubbed her the wrong way on a whole bunch of levels.

Tails walking pace was fairly rigorous, and the moment he hit the crowds returning from their shifts at work he growled and jumped clear over them. Rouge watched him go with more than a little irritation. Jumping and flapping her wings, she followed as he leapt from wall to wall, to a flagpole, and then up onto a high roof. Where he thought he was going, she had no idea. Did he think he could just run back to Knothole and forget the trip had ever happened?

Maybe he did.

Watching his back as he ran along the roof and took a flying leap, she remembered some of his old personality profile. GUN had identified that he profoundly disliked facing scenarios with complex emotional situations. His mindset was stuck in black and white, right and wrong, cause and effect. When a situation presented itself that was possibly lose-lose, or that he found to be mired in shades of gray, he simply ignored it and focused on something else.

"Where do you think you're going?" Rouge called, taking wing and flying up to where he had just disappeared.

They'd quickly gone from street level, to one of Chemical Plant's old abandoned towers. No one lived in the dangerous structure; it was just a weave of tubes and scaffolding, designed for robots to work around. Disrepair and the elements now worked to slowly bring it down. She was probably the only mobian for miles that could follow him up here.

"I'm going back to my work." She saw him standing at the edge of the building, on one of the pipes, about to take off. He could fly faster than she could, when he wanted to. It was already growing dark, and the sky was still cloudy and threatening rain.

"It was a mistake to come here," he concluded. "I've wasted too much time."

"And here Tempest told me you'd grown up into a man."

His shoulders clenched; the comment had gotten to him.

"Go on then," she said, urging him. "Run away from your problems. You and Sonic are so fast… I'm sure they'll never catch up to you."

_ "I wouldn't have enjoyed winning or losing the game if it had been against her."_

_ "So you preferred to not play at all."_

_ "Exactly."_

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked, not turning around. He sounded angry and hurt and betrayed. "This wasn't what I came here for!"

"What did you think would happen?" Rouge asked, taking a few steps towards him. "That they'd hug you and tell you they loved you and how proud they were of you, but that they'd be cardboard cutouts in your background? That whenever you were confused, you could run to them and they'd make things all better?"

She saw him reach up to his face, his hand running through his hair.

"I just…" he struggled to say it. "I just want… what Sonic has…"

Jules and Bernadette, and his uncle Charles.

"What Knuckles has…"

The Brotherhood of Guardians, as dysfunctional as they were.

"What everyone has except me!" His tails suddenly thrashed around behind him, slicing grooves in the metal supports thick enough to fit someone's hand in. "I came here thinking: finally! Finally! It was MY turn! But they're… and they betrayed…"

"Who?" Rouge asked, "The King? …Or you?"

He stood at the edge, slowly shaking his head.

"…me," he admitted, voice low and hushed. "I just wanted to bring them back, to show everyone that I… I…" he cut himself off. "But that's stupid, isn't it? Even now, trying to be like _him_."

"All my life, I've been like that. Never once has it worked out right." He turned and fell back, sitting against one of the metal tubes that arched up into the air. "You'd think I'd have learned better by now."

Throwing his head back, he stared up at the night sky.

"I always thought they'd died. Years later, when I was in trouble, or when I didn't know what to do, I'd remember how that man, someone who called himself my father… how he stood in front of me with just his fists against a whole platoon of Battlebirds. I was tired from running back to the village from West Island, where I saw the fire, and I thought: 'Dad can handle this.' For just a second, I thought: 'Dad can handle this. He'll protect me.'"

Tails let out a choked laugh.

"And then they shot him. And m… and Rosemary screamed, and hugged me, and I tried to push her away, but I didn't want to hurt her…" He winced, tears welling up in his eyes. "And she turned me around and told me not to worry. And then they hit her from behind, and there was blood all over… I should have pushed her away. I should have done something. But I just… watched. That was the first time I think I killed someone."

He hid his eyes behind his hand.

"He was just… some Battlebird with a stupid blue helmet. I broke my hand, I hit him so hard. Snapped his neck. I don't remember much after that… they tranquilized me, took me away. Put me to work." He chuckled weakly again. "I don't know how many I killed when I turned on the Armada two years later. Hundreds, maybe. By then I could barely even remember my parents' faces."

"All I really remembered," he said, in the end. "Was what they taught me: protect what you love. Fight if you have to. Now they're alive… but do I have to fight them, or protect them?"

He moved his hand, and saw Rouge sitting next to him.

"Let me tell you something," she said, hugging one of her legs to her chest. "My father took me from my mother's Tribe when I was seven or eight. I barely remember. He was the only family I had. I loved him more than anything… and he died when I was fourteen. It was his job, but he took it because a mobian without a job in human territory… well, you know."

"I didn't stop crying and blaming myself for a long time," she continued, closing her eyes and taking a deep sigh. "I always thought that if I found out who had killed him, I'd get revenge. Years later, working on a different case for GUN, I picked up some details. I found out how he died and who killed him."

"It turned out my father… had been doing some stuff on the side, and it had caught up to him on the job. Figuring that out, I blamed him instead. I blamed him for being careless, for being greedy, for being an idiot, for leaving me all alone. I think I even tried to hate him… but no matter how flawed he was, no matter how imperfect, he was still my father. I still loved him… and treasured the memories I had of him."

"Do you treasure the memories you have of them?" she asked, her eyes meeting his. "Or do you really wish they'd died?"

Deep blue eyes hid behind ochre eyelids. Tails nodded slowly, very slowly, and looked away to the city below them. Fixing the three curving bangs of hair that literally shot out from his forehead, he visibly calmed.

"You're right, of course…"

Rouge smiled at him, aquamarine eyes sparkling. "Of course I'm right!"

He 'hmmfed.'

"I still don't know what to do about them," he admitted.

"I don't think they quite know what to do about you, either."

He gave her a strange, appreciative stare. "You have an unusual way of looking at things, you know that?"

"I'll assume you meant to say: 'Rouge, you have the unique ability to see things other people miss.'"

A little hesitantly, he smiled. It was a mellow, unguarded smile that she hadn't seen on him before. It wasn't happy, but it was… sympathetic. For a moment, the young adult kitsune looked like a boy again, realizing he had found something new and unique, baffling and exciting at the same time. He laughed softly and turned away again.

"Rouge…"

"Hm?"

"What would you have done if I hadn't agreed to your terms?"

"I'd have flown away and done my best to ruin you."

And he laughed again.

* * *

Silver ran through the ancient gardens at a clip most mobians couldn't match. He was no Sonic or even Knuckles when it came to speed, but he knew he was pretty fast. Just his luck, he wasn't fast enough.

"I said I was sorry! You don't have to run away from me!"

"I'm not running away from you!" he yelled over his shoulder. "I just have somewhere to…"

SLAM

Cue the introduction of the side of his face and half of his body with a rather unyielding stone pillar. Falling to the ground, Silver closed his eyes and tried to pretend that this whole mission was just a bad dream. Any second now, he would wake up, shake his head at having such a bothersome dream, and go take a nice long shower. Any second now.

"You really should be more careful."

He opened his eyes, and saw the pink hedgehog girl from before, this time offering her hand to help him up. She was another strange local from this timeline. Who grabs onto someone in the middle of nowhere, all but tackling them to the ground, not even checking to see who they barreled into for like ten or twelve seconds? Only after taking a good close look at him did this "Amy Rose" girl finally realize that, being a white colored hedgehog with a totally different arrangement of quills, Silver was not the guy she was looking for.

He took her hand, not surprised at all by her strength as she easily pulled him up. The girl was definitely strong, probably stronger than Blaze (with a bigger bust to boot – and why had THAT thought gotten in his head?!). Silver hit his head a few times for good measure. Bad thoughts. Very bad. Behave!

"Where are we, anyway?" Amy asked, slowly turning around in a circle.

"I can't believe you just jumped through the Ring Gate…" Silver said, but kept his voice a little low. "Don't you look before you leap?"

"Not once you said Sonic went in here!" Amy declared with a pump of her fist. "This time, I'll help him out for sure!"

"He's the…" Silver took a long breath. "I'm sure you think he's great, but is it really worth risking your life?"

As far as Silver could tell, this girl had no real powers to speak of. Except the power to glomp onto random hedgehogs and defy logic.

"You," she said, poking him in the chest with a finger. "Have never been in love, have you? So you can't imagine why I'd come to help **my** Sonic!"

"Can't argue with that logic…" Silver replied, deadpan.

Suddenly her face was a lot closer, like a few inches away.

"Um…!" he mumbled and coughed. Personal space, please?

"Why are you here, anyway…" Amy's mercurial attitude turned suspicious. "You aren't working for Robotnick or someone bad, are you?"

Silver blinked, hard.

"Ah… actually… I'm one of Sonic's many fans!" he explained (a little forcibly), shooting his fist into the air. "I'm here to help him out, too! Yeah!"

"If that's the case," Amy decided, crossing her arms and nodding sagely to herself. "Then I'll allow you to team up with me."

"Gee. Thanks…"

"Now!" Amy swiftly pointed in an apparently random direction. "I say we go this way! I've got a feeling Sonic's over there!"

"I'm actually pretty sure the Trigger… Sonic… is this way," Silver slowly said, recoiling a bit at her angry glare.

"Really?" she asked, rhetorically. "And what makes you think _your_ Sonic sense is better than _mine_?"

"Well…" Silver bit his lip. "There is _that_." He pointed at a towering pillar of flame that rose up from the Zone's main building.

"Hey!" Amy just saw it, snapping her fingers. "How did I miss that?"

"Do you need glasses or something?"

"Absolutely not! They make me look like a librarian!" Amy ran off towards the palace. "Let's go!"

Sighing, Silver quickly caught up.

* * *

Sonic and Shadow slammed into the burning orb from both sides, sending a shockwave of fire and force out from the impact point. Ifrit, if it could even be called alive, gave no hint of injury. However, it **had** come to realize that simply heating up the room was no longer an effective option. Ceramic tiles detached from the walls, and shrouded by fire, they formed into shapes: whips, a spiked sphere, a blade, a square.

These flaming instruments shot out in every direction, barreling through the air in pursuit of the room's three occupants. Streaks of black dodged and weaved, hopping off the burning walls and the spinning astrolabe, or simply zipping through the air in erratic zig-zags. Another two came together, one flying up through the air, the other falling from above.

They crashed together like cymbals.

Ifrit reeled.

"INSIGNIFICANT PESTS!" his voice roared. "SOLARIS GIVES ME STRENGTH!"

The blazing orb shrunk and began to spin, flying higher into the air. The spinning armillary sphere also began to rise, accompanied by gouts of flame that shot up from the chamber and into the sky. As it rose, the previously stable platform in the center began to also spin. Higher and higher it went, until it broke free of the confines of the burning room. Even then, Sonic and Shadow took turns, throwing each other at the blazing Ifrit while Metal zipped in from the opposite side.

"YOU SHALL NOT HAVE HER!" Ifrit roared, zipping past the furious assaults and into the churning heard of the astrolabe. Colliding with the central platform, it transformed into a spherical fireball. Lines of light spread across the six spinning circles that made up the giant instrument, and the whole construct began to light up. Some began to glow a snowy blue, while others turned red hot.

Pushed to the brink, Metal, Sonic and Shadow landed on a nearby roof.

"Well, at least he's angry," Sonic noted, with some satisfaction. "Any moment now he'll leave some kind of obvious opening we can exploit seven or eight times. Then we can attack his weak point for massive damage!"

Metal and Shadow stared at the blue hedgehog.

They just stared.

"What?" Sonic asked. "What'd I say?"

"BURN, YOU PAWNS OF MEPHILES! BURN!"

"Oh! Here he comes!"

That he did. The now massive burning construct that was the Ifrit moved through the sky like a small planet, the spinning arcs and disks unleashing cracks of lightning and waves of flame. The three hedgehogs (or rather, two and one robot) shot off in different directions as lances of light and arcs of electricity tore up the palace around them, raining destruction from every angle.

The sphere attacked from every angle at once, and the three speedsters soon found themselves overwhelmed. Again and again, they tried to hit the sphere, only to barely avoid a blast of lightning or a coil of fire. Metal finally resorted to firing with an arm mounted laser, for what little good it did. A moment later, Ifrit's energies seemed to pause, contracting… before exploding in a titanic spherical wave of crackling fire and electricity.

Shadow and Sonic curled into balls, barely riding the edge of the shockwave. They landed next to each other, the protective _Eiklar_ layer on their bodies smoking from the impact. A plume of fire descended, forcing them into a run. A second later, Metal flew alongside, his left arm damaged and sparking.

"Looks like we need a plan," Sonic yelled, looking from one to the other. "I hope you aren't relying on **me** to come up with one!"

"Heaven forbid," Shadow replied, but had no ideas of his own.

Metal remained silent.

"Ok. It can't be helped," Sonic decided, jumping over a collapsing section of the roof as he ran. "I want you two to _give me your power_."

"No!" "Definitely not." came the chorus.

"W… why not?" Sonic seemed almost hurt. "Come on, guys! Don't be like that! What about all the bonding we've had over the last hour or so?"

Another lightning bolt blasted into the ground just behind them.

"Eh?" Sonic asked again, wiggling his eyebrows.

"… still no." "My response is unchanged."

"You guys no fun at all! Looks like we do it the hard way…" Sonic suddenly turned around and started running backwards. "Yo! Ifrit! Didn't I see your mother on a box of matches?"

And with that, Sonic stopped, changed direction, and ran right towards the giant flaming sphere. Shadow watched him go with almost morbid fascination.

"Has he lost his mind?"

"No," Metal replied. "This is pretty normal. I will take the left."

Shadow nodded.

They split, and circled around. The great Ifrit rained more fire and death, but Sonic moved with unmatched speed and agility, dodging between the strikes and jumping boldly at the floating entity. At the same time, Shadow and Metal flew in from opposite angles, exploding out from hiding beneath the roof.

The three slammed into Ifrit's outermost arc with a deafening boom. Less than a second later, the great sphere's power convulsed, and another spherical explosion sent all three flying. Metal Sonic arced gracefully through the air, trailing burning debris. Shadow slammed into a tiled roof, smashing right through it. Sonic hit another roof at a different angle, skidding along the surface as he rolled. Large chips and flakes of the _Eiklar_ heat resistant material that Metal had given him fell from his arms and legs.

"THOSE WHO SEEK THE HOLY LIGHT OF SOLARIS…"

Ifrit's surface crackled with a growing electrical charge.

"SHALL BE REDUCED TO ASHES!!"

"Master…" a voice whispered, feminine and sweet; nothing like the thunderous boom of the monstrous Ifrit. Sonic's eyes barely opened, and he tried to move.

"Your chance" the small voice whispered. "This is it…"

"Don't you DARE HURT HIM!!" A totally different voice, shrill, loud, and belonging to a very different girl, forced his eyes wide open. Amy seemed to be flying through the air, brandishing her Piko hammer. What she was doing here (obviously she had followed him as usual) quickly became replaced with: how on Mobius did she pick up so much speed?

A blast of lightning shot from Ifrit's spinning quarters, hitting her hammer with a fountain of light and energy. A normal instrument would have been reduced to slag, and her along with it, but Amy's hammer was a gift from the Acorn Kings to their vassals in Mercia. It was made of and imbued with the power of the Source, a counterpart to the Sword of Acorns. The result was a weapon far more formidable and resilient than it would appear. Amy kept going, trailing blue contrails of lightning behind her, until she crashed into the outermost ring of the Ifrit's astrolabe.

"USELESS!"

The sphere pulsed, and she screamed, flying away from the point of impact.

"Amy!" Sonic yelled, forcing himself back onto his feet. Running, he just barely made it in time to catch her before she hit the ground. Amazingly, though Ifrit's blow had knocked her unconscious, she otherwise seemed unhurt. Her Piko hammer had to have absorbed most of the force. Otherwise, he suspected there wouldn't have been much left for him to rescue.

Hundreds of feet above them, Ifrit burned, remorseless and untouchable.

'Her hammer…' Sonic thought, looking for it.

Metal Sonic floated down, holding Shadow by his shoulder. Both looked pretty beat up, but then Sonic could guess that he didn't look any better. Cradling Amy in his arms, Sonic's ever present smile trickled away. Carefully putting her down, he faced his two enemies-turned-allies.

"THIS…"

Ifrit began to convulse again.

"IS YOUR TWILIGHT."

"I don't think so!" Sonic yelled at the seemingly unstoppable entity. Jumping straight into the air, he reached upward and felt a hand clasp around his wrist. Metal's engines roared as he climbed higher holding both Sonic and Shadow, the latter in his nearly destroyed left arm. The Ifrit unleashed a handful of attacks, but Metal's maneuvering was unpredictable and erratic and he climbed higher and higher.

Stopping just short of a serpentine river of fire, Metal hit the brakes and immediately began to spin. A blue and black blur flew from his grip, followed by a pitch blank duplicate. A second later, the robot reeled as a bolt of lightning hit it square in the chest. Engine catching fire, Metal Sonic fell, burning, from the sky.

At the same time, Sonic spun towards the Ifrit, pushing all the remaining energy he had into his last desperate homing attack. Praying he could stay on target, counting on the unique extrasensory "persistent eyesight" he had even when tucked into a ball, he saw his target. He hit it hard, and felt just a little give…

Rolling out of the way, Sonic saw the head of Amy's hammer now firmly wedged into a deep crack in the Ifrit Astrolabe's outermost ring. Metal's timing, and his homing attack, had been just about perfect. Sonic fell through the air, body nearly exhausted, when he saw Shadow hit the exact same spot. The black hedgehog finished what Amy and Sonic had started. He hit the head of the hammer and with a great and resounding crash; he broke through the Ifrit's barrier.

Shadow continued, now using the hammer in front of him like a wrecking ball. He passed by one, then another, of the swirling circles that made up the burning armillary sphere. A thinner one spun, getting in the way, but Shadow crashed through it with the last of his momentum. Tumbling limply through the innermost core, he slammed right into the central platform.

"YOU CAN NOT…"

Shadow placed his palms flat on the burning discus.

"Chaos Spear."

Far below, Sonic watched with tired eyes as the Ifrit's spinning construct of a body tore apart. Massive burning pieces crashed to the ground, leveling buildings and flattening pristine gardens. A pinprick of flame in the middle of the sky shook furiously as it burned out.

"THE KEY… MUST… not… be turned…"

And then, with barely a fizzle, the voice was gone.

* * *

The last thing Amy really remembered was flying through the air, propelled by some unknown force, her hammer held tightly in her hands. Everything after that became dreamlike, surreal, and just as easily forgotten. One moment she had been fighting and the next… she awoke in a hospital. How much, she wondered, had been real and how much had just been her imagination?

Breathing slowly, she tried to get up but found a hand gently restraining her. How she wished it had been Sonic waiting there, a look of worry and concern on his face for her. Instead, it was just some nurse she didn't recognize.

"Easy does it, Miss Rose…"

"Where's Sonic?" she asked right off the bat. "Is he ok?"

"He's fine," the nurse responded, smiling supportively. "He was the one who brought you in."

Amy closed her eyes, imaging him carrying her into the hospital, crying for help. It was a nice little daydream, even if probably wasn't terribly accurate. She had been so worried about him; her own injuries seemed less than irrelevant. As great as he was, she had seen him in trouble, and knew something had to be done. Even if it was dangerous. Even if it was…

_ "Don't be an idiot! You can't go out there! It's suicide!"_

_ "I can't just watch while he gets hurt!" She tore her arm out of the strange silver hedgehog's grip. "I don't care what you think! I don't care how dangerous it is!"_

_ "I know he's important to you…"_

_ "No! You don't! He's everything to me!"_

_ "You'll get hurt if you go out there."_

_ "And I'd hate myself if I did nothing! You can just stay here and hide if you want, but I'm going!"_

She didn't want to think of it as suicidal, but it had been reckless. Why didn't anyone really understand what he meant to her? Why didn't Sonic himself understand?

_"You never told Sonic, did you, Tails?"_

_ He turned his head and 'hmfed' _

_ "Of course not."_

_ "Why?"_

_ "Because… while Sonic loves Sally, I do think he likes you. If he knew… what had happened… he'd have to choose."_

_ Amy frowned. "And you think he'd choose you?"_

Why wasn't Sonic here?

_"Well aren't you the lucky one! You picked the one guy you'll never have!"_

He had to care, too. He had to, because if he didn't… then that just made her pretty pathetic, now didn't it? Even if it wasn't love, there had to be something there between them. She loved him! There was no way something that powerful could just go unrequited. Even if Tails hated her for it, or resented her for it… even if everyone laughed at her for being so stupid, she had to believe that there was something between them.

"Sonic…" she whispered. Why wasn't he here?

Then she saw something leaning against the wall, just to the side of her bed. The nurse had been standing next to and partly in front of it before, but now Amy could see it: the hilt of her Piko Piko Hammer. Had she dropped it before? Yes, she had to have, when she blacked out. It looked none the worse for wear at least, and… she reached over, hand trembling.

There was a small note tied to it with string.

Nervously licking her lips, she undid the little knot and held the letter in her hands. It was unmarked on the outside, but she knew who it was from. Holding it tightly to her chest, she opened it with the utmost care.

**Ames**

Warmth flooded through her body at just the nickname.

**Ames**

**Thanks for the help! You really saved our hedgehog bacon! I tried to get Metal and Shadow to sign this note too, but they're both jerks and didn't want to. Anyway, get better soon. **

**I'll see you later. **

** -- Sonic the You Know What**

**Next time, be more careful tho'**

Tails was wrong. Sonic did care! Even if he was with Sally, or any other girl, he still cared! Amy knew it! Tears of joy streamed down her face. She'd been useful, and Sonic had even acknowledged it!

"It's only a matter of time, Sonic!" she hugged the letter to her chest again. "I'll make you mine!"

* * *

Silver squinted his eyes as he entered Mephiles' makeshift headquarters. It wasn't much to look at: just some ancient human laboratory, long since abandoned. Most of the facility, even when reactivated, worked solely on emergency power. This left the remaining halls perpetually bathed in an eerie reddish glow.

As an originally human designed structure, Silver found the whole place rather uncomfortable. The ceilings were too high and he had to crane his neck to try and read any of the normally eye-level information plaques that broke up the monotony of one hallway after another. Not that he could really read them anyway. Everything was faded with age and covered in a fine layer of dust.

Heading towards Mephiles' Cloister, the architecture began to change.

Concrete became replaced by stone and mortar, enduring despite its age. In more than a few places, metal supports stuck out, reinforcing the structure. Silver had been down this particular route several times, but only now did he see a parallel to the inner cloister's architecture. It reminded him right away of the domed areas of the palace in that alternate Special Zone.

This was the lowest level of the complex, and obviously the oldest. Silver could guess that the concrete sections had been built much later, possibly as part of an excavation project. The innermost structure was very simple in layout: there was a large central area that looked like it had been cut out of a naturally occurring cavern, and three smaller antechambers. Lastly, there was a single entrance-slash-exit.

Silver entered the central chamber without fanfare. It was just a big empty space, really. The only things of note that stuck out were the electric lights and the small generator he and Blaze had brought down for their own use. Mephiles never seemed to mind the darkness (or the light). Silver could see him, sitting as still as a statue in the tiny antechamber built into the furthermost wall.

"He isn't here yet."

"Blaze!" Silver said, a happy feeling tinting his tone of voice. Sure enough, he saw his best friend and teammate leaning casually against the wall behind him. She could be very stealthy when she wanted, and he hadn't seen or even sensed her until she spoke up and surprised him.

"How did things go?" Blaze inquired, holding a small bag in her right hand.

"Pretty easy," he replied, holding up his prize.

"All that trouble for an old bronze lamp?"

"Weird, huh?" Silver shrugged. "Guess its part of the ritual. Maybe we're going to seal Iblis in it or something?"

"In a lamp?" Blaze quirked an imperious eyebrow. "Maybe Mephiles just has bad taste in silverware."

Silver laughed lightly. "Maybe. But you wouldn't believe the commotion the other guys caused back there. They almost brought a wall down on me with all the fighting! And there was this girl…"

Blaze made a mysterious smile. "A girl?"

"Come crazy… Sonic… fan-girl or… I don't know. It was _really_ weird. She thought **I** was the Trigger, and she jumped me. Right out of the blue, too! I'm amazed she didn't break my ribs."

"She thought you were the Iblis Trigger?" Blaze asked, pushing off of the wall. "Well, he is quite popular in this time period. It sounds like you've discovered a good way to meet girls."

"Yeah right! We'll see how popular he is with the ladies when they find out he releases Iblis…" Silver gave a disgusted snort. "And I'm not even the same color. **And** my quills are different. I don't know how anyone can say I look like him."

"Well…" Blaze answered, playfully. "They say all hedgehogs look the same…"

He caught on and happily joined in.

"I'll have you know," he put on a lecturing tone, "Hedgehogs have more diversity than you felines do!"

"Hey!"

"You know it's true. There are _green_ hedgehogs. When was the last time you saw a green feline?"

"You're making that up! Green?"

He crossed the fingers of his left hand. "Swear to the Maker."

"We have calico…"

"You can't compare calico to green."

"What about purple?" Blaze gestured to herself. "Don't tell me there are purple hedgehogs."

"Actually," Silver said, wisely cupping his chin. "I'm pretty sure there are."

"You **are** making this up!"

"I'm not!"

"Well, Professor," she began to say, grabbing the hand from under his chin. "Why don't you…"

She never finished her sentence – the sound of something heavy, like a stone falling to the ground, cut her short. She immediately backed off, and Silver turned around to see why. Mephiles was back. Easing off his granite throne, he flexed the joints of his outwardly organic body. Silver and Blaze both knew what lay beneath the appearance of flesh: blue crystal and black blood.

Mephiles made cracking sounds as he stood, fingers curling and head rolling back and forth on his neck. He took a few slow steps before rediscovering, or maybe before 'remembering' was more accurate, how to use his current body properly. Blaze and Silver immediately parted and adopted a serious, professional demeanor. Mephiles had never actually rebuked them for fooling around or anything like that… but there was something about him, something devoid of humor or recreation. His apathy and disinterest made those near him similarly put off.

"You have it," he stated, holding out his hand. "I knew you would not fail, Silver. This world may still be saved."

"I got it…" Silver held out the worthless looking old lamp. It was clean, at least. Even when he'd found it, it looked like it had been polished to a shine just the day before.

"Can't imagine what you'd want with it, though," he added.

"Erazor's Lamp…" Mephiles said, almost reverently, as he lifted the old bronze artifact out of Silver's hands. "It is but one of many prisons built by Melchisedec."

"Melchisedec?" Blaze asked, listening in. The name was unfamiliar to her, and Silver had certainly never heard it before.

Mephiles' eyes became like smoldering ingots of gold. "The very one who sealed Iblis… and the one who created her… Melchisedec. Erazor was his pawn. It was he who drove Iblis to become the creature you know."

"So…" Blaze ventured. "This Melchisedec created Iblis, and Erazor helped somehow?"

"He drove her to madness with his _lies_," Mephiles explained (though not very clearly). Holding the lamp up to eye level, he glared into its smooth surface. "I will use Erazor's power to undo Melchisedec's work… and destroy 'Iblis' forever."

"Did anyone see you, Silver?" The Dark then asked, eyeing the young time traveler. "I hope you were discrete."

"Ah…" Silver scratched his head, a sure sign he was hiding something (at least to Blaze). "No one important. The Trigger didn't see me, if that's what you're worried about..."

Mephiles eyes narrowed, just a tiny bit.

"No. This is fine." He then turned his attention to Blaze. "And you?"

Blaze swung around her carrying case, and reached inside.

"Not a problem," the feline said, holding out a large diamond-like gemstone literally pulsing with inner fire. "I think I had less trouble than Silver did."

It was a Super Emerald.

"Very good…!" Mephiles face, if he had a mouth, would have broadened into a smile. "Only one thing remains, and then, children, we shall have our… new and better future…"

* * *

"Rings?"

Shadow stood in front of the Eggman, eyes half closed. He was only half paying attention to his 'Master,' his mind dwelling on the meeting with Mephiles he had had only hours before. The strange entity had mentioned something about a "Burning Key" and it had seemed somewhat surprised that Shadow hadn't had it. Shadow still didn't know what it had been talking about. They had searched the remains of the Ifrit, and Metal had scanned the palace for anything of value. There was no "Burning Key."

But then, hadn't the Ifrit itself said, "The key must not be turned?"

At this point, if Mephiles wanted it so badly, he could look for it himself.

"How strange… these aren't Power Rings. Not of the usual sort! And such strange colors!"

Eggman currently held two of the Rings in his hands. As a human (albeit a slightly misbegotten one), he would normally find it impossible to interact with a Chaos Energy Ring. Examining them closely, he made some mental deductions and calculations before coming to an unspoken conclusion and putting the two rings back in their metal case. Closing the lid, he tested to make sure it was secure before patting the lid affectionately and turning his eyes back to his most reliable henchman.

"Good job, Shadow!" he said, with some difficulty. Praise was rare from the mad Doctor.

Shadow felt nothing but indifference.

"However…" Robotnick continued. "It would have been nice to get the full set."

"It seemed like the diplomatic response," Shadow replied, but without any real emotion. "Sonic and this other girl only got three of the Rings. I thought… we could use them?"

"To power Helios?" Eggman assumed, correctly in this case. "I may be able to. I've never seen anything like them!"

He didn't get too ahead of himself.

"Time will tell," the human decided, cackling happily at the prospect of some new and interesting research. "I will begin experiments immediately!"

Shadow's mind was elsewhere. "You sound excited, Doctor."

"Why, I suppose I am!" Eggman snatched up the case and headed off, deeper into his maze of labs and workshops. Feeling particularly magnanimous, he yelled over his shoulder, "Feel free to take the day off!"

Thinking it over, Professor Robotnick's Ultimate Life Form decided to simply turn in and get some rest. It had been a long and… wearying day.

* * *

The sun shone over Chemical Plant, the last of the rain falling the night before. On the lower levels, workers shuffled off to their daytime shifts while the weary night crowd dragged themselves back to their crowded residences and block dormitories. Stores opened, and a train whistled before starting up towards Casino Night.

They met on that high perch they alone could reach.

"A nice morning."

"It is," Tails agreed. He sat at the edge of the piping tower, feet dangling off the side. Rouge sat down next to him, both of them still in their "undercover" plain clothes. Tails had his namesakes uncoiled, but they seemed to be at peace; only the white tips moved restlessly in the wind.

The two of them sat in silence for a long while, just watching the world revolve around them. This high up, with a strong breeze coming in from the ocean, the air was noticeably easier to breathe. From their height, they could see the city in a different daytime light: as a great patchwork of light. Pools of chemicals and a million twisting pipes and tubes reflected every color of the rainbow.

It really was like no other city on Mobius.

"So what did you decide, anyway?" she asked, leaning towards him a bit.

"As if I didn't know you were listening in on us the whole time," he quipped. "You heard every word."

"Not _every_ word…"

He smiled, leaning back onto his elbows.

"I thought about it, and you know… Sonic always used to say, 'live and let live.' I guess that's his philosophy. I never thought I had one myself, but…" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened them, his eyes were clear, without doubt or regret.

"I think… everyone should be able to fly with their own wings, and in their own ways. Me, you, my parents… everyone."

"That's awfully laid back of you," Rouge said, poking him verbally. "Can you really fight, thinking that?"

A smile parted Miles Prower's lips, revealing sharp kitsune teeth.

"Yeah. I think I can."

* * *

**--Notes Chapter 8--**

**This chapter took a while to write** and a full week or so to finish tweaking and proofing. I'm very happy with the result, though. It was originally simply too serious and drama-filled a chapter, so I expanded the Sonic-Metal-Shadow team up, using the action and a bit of silly comedy to break up the Tails-Rouge Amadeus-Rosemary stuff. The end result is much better than my initial plan.

I should talk briefly about two things here:

The first is Amadeus and Rosemary. Both are characters picked up from the comic continuity. In the original ACO they didn't appear at all, but I retconned some stuff to fit them into the Reload. In the comic continuity, they were actually kidnapped by aliens (Yes. Aliens) shortly after Tails was born. They came back, and after learning to like the "democrazy" of the aliens that kidnapped them, they decided to apply it to the mobians back home as well.

Per COA, they're a bit more socialistic but have similar aims. One can justly guess that they played a role in the mini Civil War that erupted in the Southern regions during "COA: New World Order." Here, I kept them together with Miles for longer, and made them in many ways more significant. He actually recognized them as family, and remembered them, and all they had done for him, even if they weren't his flesh and blood. If remembering his birth parents dying was traumatic, discovering the mobians he truly thought of as family alive, but opposed to the group he fought for, was even worse (hence his rather callous reaction).

Which brings us to Tails and Rouge. The original story did have this pairing, under circumstances that some would call "duress." It was never meant to be a true pairing, in the sense that they loved each other, or even became committed to each other. It was a convenient thing (they used one another for different reasons). I'm hoping to explore this more naturalistically here in the Reload. Ideally, it'll come out well, and without seeming either forced (literally) or overly unwieldy.

Rouge's major role in this is to be a counterweight to Tails in a way that Cream and Sally can't be. Cream is naturally too submissive, out of deference (to authority), respect, and engrained politeness. Sally has the burden of being someone he respects, but also someone he had trouble relating to, now that their big-sister/younger-brother relationship is upended. I'm trying to write Rouge as aggressive, intelligent and often flirty to the point of discomfort, but at the same time, as someone determined, responsible, and with good (albeit self-interested) intentions.

I just hope I can get everything in order before the story ends. Chapter 9, the finale, is coming up next.

* * *


	26. Crossing the Rubicon i

NOTES:

Here we go again. Been a long time since I updated, I know, I know. Unfortunately, lately, I'm only really felt my creative muse calling when it means avoiding doing important work. It'd strangle the damn thing if it were tangible and real. As it is, I'm hoping that, by finally posting some stuff, I can silence it and finally focus on actual real life work again.

But anyway: COA:ACO! Time to finish this big beast off. Since the finale is turning out so freakin' huge, its gonna be split into two chapters: 9 and 10. For you guys who were waiting for some serious fights and action, well. You'll get it. you know how it is. The longer the buildup, the bigger the fights.

Let me also apologize for the delay in the update. I know how much it sucks to read an incomplete fic, especially when its a long one like this. Redoing the ending for COA here was a surprising amount of work, and I've been pretty hassled with real life over the last few months. Not a great excuse, but if I don't have the urge, I can't really get much written. That's enough rambling, I guess. Back to COA! Here's to finishing it off soon (chap 9 is done, 10 is still in the works)

I've also decided to make the chapters shorter, but more numerous. Each one should be about 20 pages rather than 30. Chapter 9 will thus have 5 parts to it rather than 3.

* * *

**"For every state war is always incessant and lifelong against every other state…  
For what most men call 'peace,' this is really only a name – in truth, all states  
by their very nature are always engaged in an informal war against all other states."**

**- Plato, Laws (1.626A)**

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER NINE:_

**Crossing the Rubicon**

* * *

It was the most shameful scam Geoffrey St. John had ever seen.

Once word had broken out about the formerly secret peace talks between the Kingdom of Acorn and the Eggman Empire, the so called 'Echidnapolis Accords' had quickly degenerated into a media frenzy. The Echidnapolis government played up their involvement as hosts and as a neutral party, shamelessly promoting themselves as peace makers and touting the victory of their policy of non-intervention. They sold seats outside the conference hall, as if the whole thing were a grand performance, and within a week they transformed the out of the way ranch in Mushroom Hill zone into a three ring circus.

Geoffrey shielded his eyes from the flashes of light as the great mass of ravenous reporters buzzed and beamed all around him. He wasn't even the focus of their attention; Sally held every eye as she explained the finer details of one of the many points of contention that the conference had to iron out. Diplomacy of this nature had little precedent in modern Mobian culture, and the unique nature of the event made it all the more appealing. With every day, it seemed more and more Mobians pinned their hopes for the future on the most dubious of promises.

Beyond the reporters stood lines of security - Echidnapolis handled much of it, but each delegation had its own detail as well. The King had sent his finest to keep his daughter and son safe as they presided over this great moment in history. The Eggman Empire had sent some of its "finest" as well: two entire units of imposing, white colored Combots were in place to defend their delegation. The echidna paid the security risk little mind. The Eggman Empire itself was half a world away and the echidna felt smug and secure on their little floating island.

Sally fielded another question, smiling reassuringly as she did so.

She was stunning, as usual. The Kingdom had hired professionals to give her a proper royal appearance, and he knew that every morning she endured hours of primping and styling. This was followed by hours in a room with a dozen others, hammering out details of the cease fire. Technically, she was present only as an advisor to Prince Elias, who was the formal head of the Mobian delegation, and had been since his first tentative meeting with Snively two weeks ago.

Geoffrey has been there for that, and he was here now; it was clear as day for everyone to realize where the real power lay in their little group now that Sally was formally present. Elias has a rather timid personality and the King had given him very little negotiating authority. He had presented Snively with a number of demands, and to everyone surprise, the Empire had followed through with many of them. They had even suggested, and honorably participated, in a small joint venture a week ago. It was a promising start, but St. John was unconvinced.

He gave Sally a quick look, seeing past her cheery façade to the tired young woman beneath. She lowered her hand to her side, and made a tiny hidden gesture with her pinky finger. Geoffrey stood nearby as Head of Security, and catching the gesture, he motioned for his men to move in. Everyone knew that once security started to tighten around the Princess that it would be over, and quite a few reporters resorted to shouting out questions. Geoffrey flattened his ears and tried to drone it all out.

"Princess! Princess, please!"

Sighing, Sally pointed to the reporter, probably hoping to calm the whole pack by throwing them another bone or two.

"Princess, can you confirm the withdrawal of Eggman forces from Emerald Hill Zone?"

"We can," she replied. "And we appreciate this good faith gesture by the Empire."

The reporter pressed on. "Is it true that royal forces have withdrawn from our own encirclement of Starlight City?"

"I have no comments to make regarding our military deployments."

She started to turn away from the podium, and St. John's security flanked her as she left. These impromptu press conferences has to be vexing, especially after a day's negotiations, and the questions themselves needed better vetting. If only they had people trained to handle the media… but up until recently, there had been little to no news media among the general Mobian population. Mobian society was having some difficulty keeping pace with their technology.

Supervising the procession personally, St. John followed the Princess as she retreated to a sealed off villa where the Mobian delegation were housed. Along the way, he saw a flock of hungry gulls with press passes mobbing another small group of delegates. He paused, narrowing his eyes in distaste.

Snively stood out as the most vocal of the Eggman delegation, but Shadow was its golden boy. Their version of Sally, he supposed. Silent, brooding, and supremely confident, Shadow rarely spoke, but when he did the media hung on every word. The things he said: that the Eggman Empire was still strong, that it would and would fight on if the cease fire was not signed, that it would uphold its agreements as long as its territory was not violated… Mobians believed him. Mobians **wanted** to believe him.

'You must fight; you must endure; you must lose brothers and sisters, fathers and sons' - these were not the words Mobians wanted to hear. They had lost fathers and sons for decades. They had lost them against the humans, against each other, and against the Eggman. They did not want to lose their loved ones any more.

But they had to.

If need be, they had to be willing to lose everything to gain victory.

Such decisions, however, were out of his hands. His duty was to obey his Lord and the Family Royal. This was the natural order, and without it there was only savagery and chaos. The Source of All had ordained this arrangement as the most ideal and the most proper in all creation, and it was the obligation of all Source-fearing Mobians to obey. As such, he threw himself into the delegation's security arrangements.

His men were all hand picked for their loyalty. The Royal delegation was an eclectic lot: once it became a serious exercise in diplomacy, a great many nobles had wished to take part in the glory they believed would follow a "victory of the pen." They all wanted their name on the peace documents, and they all had ample advice to give. At present, the Prince and Princess demanded the most attention, but there were also two Ministers of State, a Viceroy, and no less than five Dukes in attendance.

St. John's security detail had promptly swollen into a small army of almost a hundred. He drilled them constantly and worked hard to integrate the new males and females under his command. Every morning he double checked all the security arrangements, supervised electronics and counter-intelligence sweeps, and still found time to be in the field himself. He knew the names of every security agent he was responsible for, and could recall from memory where they were supposed to be at any given time that day.

This was his duty.

This was the love he had in his heart for the Royal Family and for its Princess.

"Mr. St. John…?"

"What is it?" he asked, raising his voice. They had only recently gotten back to the villa, and he was half way to double check with the local communications security team. Their enemies were technologically sophisticated (as were their kind hosts), and if they had a weak spot, it was that they were working from a position of weakness in terms of electronic counter-intelligence.

"The Crown Princess wishes to see you, sir."

St. John nodded to himself. "I'll be over in a moment."

"Yes, sir."

Diverting course from the rotunda in the East Wing to the Princess's rooms in the southern section of the villa, Geoffrey reflected on the problem of electronic warfare. He and his men did as much as they could to maintain secrecy, but he was well aware of their limitations. The sleeping arrangements of the Prince and Princess were changed regularly, and both were known only to a few servants and the core security. An assassination attempt was still fairly likely, but Geoffrey was confident he could thwart any potential plans. The more difficult problem was with the conference itself.

It was lousy with spies.

He snorted derisively. Not that it should have surprised anyone. The echidna were spying, the Empire was spying, the humans were spying, and probably even the dingo. Within those circles, there were even more spies: the echidna had two intelligence services, one civilian and one military, and the Mobians were likewise a mess of interests. St. John had even felt the need to set aside a small group inside his own security force to handle independent intelligence gathering. It was a necessary evil… to salvage some remnant of victory from this debacle of a peace conference.

He smoothed over his royal uniform and went to see the future Queen.

Be the time he knocked and received permission to enter, Sally was struggling to escape a particularly cunning trap: the corset she had been forced to wear under her stately gown. He stood in silence – and silent amusement – as she finally just tore the thing off, freeing her torso to breathe for the first time in hours. Courtly fashion seemed to involve great forbearance on the part of its dignified ladies. Tossing the troublesome garment on the floor, much to the grief of one of her handmaids, Sally pointed at the skunk.

"Not one word," she warned.

"I wouldn't think of it."

She then turned to her poor young handmaid. "Go on, I'll take care of the rest of this junk…"

"But M'lady," the young lady tried to argue. She was a vixen, maybe fifteen, and also dressed in heavy courtly attire. She glanced worriedly between the Princess and her guest. After a second she acquiesced, bowed her head, and left.

"New girl?" he asked when the young vixen was gone.

Sally nodded, carefully picking the stylized metal pins from her carmine colored hair. He waited, watching her un-ladylike demeanor grow more and more pronounced as she become more and more relaxed. Waiting for her, he took a nearby chair from the dresser and sat down.

"I want your take on the proposal for Scrap Brain Zone."

St. John blinked, surprised by the question. "Why ask me?"

"You've been in the military for almost two decades now, Geoffrey," she answered. "I've been hearing some grumbling lately on the part of our armed forces. I think you have more experience than any of my so called advisors here."

That was likely true, he realized. Sally had a good grasp of strategy and tactics herself, but most of the Mobian nobility that had escaped roboticization were rather… ill suited to managing policy. The defense of the realm fell traditionally to the many lords of the land, but they had lost the crème of their society to the Great War and the humans' brutal war machines.

"As you know, Princess," he tried to keep his tone professional, despite it being just the two of them in the room. There was a time when he would have been tempted to be more familiar with her, but that had been nipped in the bud more than a year ago. "We control the entirety of Scrap Brain Zone already. Accepting it as a demilitarized zone means conceding our gains around Starlight City."

Sally sat on the edge of her bed, now back to her usual state of undress. She slipped on a pair of gloves and boots with a long sigh. For Mobians, the extremities were the most intimate parts of the body: the ones you used the most, and the ones that were the most sensitive. As a result, while most Mobians never bothered with clothes on their torsos, almost all put great thought into what they wore on their hands and especially their feet.

"To formulate a workable peace plan, we need a workable border," Sally replied, lying on the bed and propping her had up on her elbow. "Is Scrap Brain Zone defensible from our side?"

"Yes, Princess Sally. It is."

"But you don't think we should take it?" she assumed.

"It's a straight line from Starlight to Robotropolis. We can completely bypass the defenses in The Ring." St. John let out a long sigh. "You know all this already. Our push to take Starlight is the best option we have for knocking Eggman out of the war. If we hadn't stopped offensive operations…"

"We'd be in the streets of Robotropolis," she finished. "Yes, I've heard as much before. But thousands of Mobians would be dead who aren't now. All to get us there."

St. John turned stony silent.

"Speak your mind, Goeff," she urged him. "Please. That's why you're here. I just want someone who disagrees to tell me the truth about what they think."

"Princess," he replied, thinking over his response for a few seconds. "During the war, when the humans made their first major push towards Mobotropolis, there was a city in their way. We never had many transportation hubs, and this was one of them. Winter was getting close, and we needed time to regroup our forces. The decision was made to turn the city into a fortress."

St. John closed his eyes, as if remembering it firsthand.

"We pressed the peasantry... the civilians I mean, into service. Building bunkers and tunnels and armor traps and lines of defense. His Majesty sent more and more soldiers to the city and we armed those who could fight. We commandeered any vehicles and any fuel we could, and rationed out food and water. As things got worse in the battle, there was less and less for the civilians. All of it had to go to those who could fight."

"Andopolis," Sally said, recognizing the city and the history.

Geoffrey nodded.

"The city held for three months. Three months, against all odds. It slowed the humans long enough for winter. Only a month later, with the capital itself besieged, Jules rescued _that man_, and the war finally began to turn around."

That man, of course, being Robotnick. In the end, they had replaced one enemy with another, but no one had known that at the time. Still, Sally could see what Geoffrey was saying: that a bloody sacrifice would have to be made, even of the innocent, for the greater long term good.

"The Mobians of this great Kingdom live to serve the King and the Source," he explained. "So long as the Kingdom prevails, Mobiankind shall prevail. I… worry, privately, that if we do not strike now, while we have the advantage… that it will be lost forever."

"Fortune favors the bold?"

"Maybe," he conceded. "But I know it doesn't favor the timid. Princess," he then asked, a little anxiously. "What about yourself? You have fought this fight as long as anyone. Do you believe this peace can work?"

Sally didn't answer at first, and after a few seconds, St. John started to wonder if he had been out of line. The two of them had been close once. At one point, he had even heard whispers that the King would arrange something between them. Embarrassments and misunderstandings had followed, compounded by an adversarial relationship he had developed with Sonic. He was just now working to regain the royal favor he had so rapidly lost.

"I think Robotnick is too smart to be allowed to bide his time," Sally finally said. "No matter how badly beaten, he will always come back. Always. It's in his nature."

He didn't understand. "Then…why?"

Sally huffed. "Right now, I think we have to do what we can to save as many lives as we can. There is not a single Robian working for Robotnick out of choice. They are his greatest victims, and I have never condoned strikes against them. I never will."

St. John nodded in sympathy. "You'll never get those Robians back, Sally. When you negotiate with hostage takers, it only encourages them. …I know this personally."

"They're family, Geoffrey. Family." Sally sat up and gave him a stern look. Thinking aloud seemed to have given her resolve a booster shot. "A hundred thousand family members that we have the opportunity to save. Bloodlessly! If we attack now, how many of them will survive? And besides, have you seen those pictures from Knothole? The protests?"

He grunted. "I have."

"It's a madhouse out there. If I don't at least try and resolve this and get those men and women back, then half the country will probably erupt in riots!"

St. John scowled, but not at her.

"There is no room in a just society for rebels and traitors," he all but whispered, but quickly caught himself and covered up the words with a rough cough.

"I don't have a choice anymore," Sally cupped her chin, frowning at the situation they'd all been stuck in. "We'll just have to wait and play this out. We're taking every precaution with the Robians. If Robotnick tries anything, we'll know, and the war will be back on."

"And if there is no foul play?" he asked. "What then?"

Sally gave him an unusually shrewd look. "I'm sure that, once we have what we want, we can manufacture a pretext for starting the war again. I don't intend to let Robotnick recover long enough to beat us into the ground and I know he can't go more than a few months without sending some new toy out to try and kill Sonic."

"So we wait," she concluded. "It isn't perfect, but there's no other option."

* * *

Tesslik City  
(New Megapolis)

Massive flying airships cast long shadows over the great domed and arched city of New Megapolis, formerly the industrial factory city of Tesslik. Unfurled banners sported the still proud logo of GUN from every corner, sedate blue and white among the garish neon of commercial signs and advertisements. The city had been converted in the most total sense of the word: even in the present, the air was all but choked by clouds of insect sized microbots that worked ceaselessly to construct and convert the old infrastructure into something more than it had been before.

Vast hexagonal shapes stood out against the dark night sky, glowing with hot pinpricks of light: a new dome under construction. Beneath it, stone and steel statues stood atop plaques exalting human triumphs and survival. Clean running water and intricate fountains flanked columnated buildings, juxtaposed by the flicker of security force fields and tesla coils. It was truly a marvel of a city, built in record time by revolutionary technology.

Only one thing was missing.

Among the streets and venues, hardly a man or woman could be seen. The immaculate roads were all but devoid of traffic, the parks empty, and even the shopping districts - on closer inspection - were only working at partial capacity. Small groups of men and women in uniform moved together, but they were like islands in a featureless sea. A far larger army of mechanical servitors tended to them and manned most of the services no human was available to fill.

This was the depopulated paradise of New Megapolis, population: 80,000. This was the largest and most populous human city in the world. This was the capital city of the GUN Remnant and the Terran Protectorate. A city that could be said to lack for nothing more than people to populate it.

Deep within the heart of this city, within the vast fortified and shielded bunker complex that was the Grand Rotunda, the center of government, a black and white clad figure reclined behind a vast desk of imperial oak. Wall-to-wall screens displayed a very different picture than was actually outside: in here, one could see an near perfect replication of Old Station Square, bustling with people down below. A bright blue sky stretched overhead, with hardly a cloud in sight.

This was the sitting room of Mastermind, the masked man who had come to the aid of GUN after the fall of Station Square. With only his personal finances and contacts, he had pursued a personal war against the mainland Mobian races even before that tragedy. None could have guess that fate would smile upon him so: handing him the mantle of highest human authority through such a twist of circumstance and opportunity. Once condemned as a dangerous radical, he now sat in judgment of those that had once forced him into exile.

This was the nameless man: Mastermind.

Running a hand over the gunmetal mask he never removed, Mastermind let his mind wander back to the past. He had been condemned as a radical, but none had understood just how personal the war with the Mobians had been. It wasn't just one group against another. It wasn't just a clash of one civilization and another. It wasn't just a race war. The truth was much worse...

Opening his eyes, he returned his attention to the projected screen in front of him. It was more news covering the so called "peace accord" between the Kingdom of Acorn and the Eggman Empire. More bad news, in other words. Before joining him in his great crusade, GUN had seen fit to arm and assist the Mobians in their war. The Eggman Empire was enemy to all nations, and the Mobians were manning most of the frontlines. Mastermind did not fault that decision, but now it was time for a more balanced foreign policy. Other powers were needed to check the Kingdom before it could defeat the Eggman Empire.

Ideally, all the little furry rats would kill each other, allowing mankind to resume its place in the natural order. Which was at the top, of course. But this peace accord was troubling. All his plans required the destruction of Robotnik and his forces, and at present, with a ceasefire along the Eggman/Mobian border, that left GUN the only major faction still fighting the madman's forces. Even if the Mobians and robots went back to tearing each other apart in a few months, that would be plenty of time for GUN's forces to become bloodied to the point of incapacitation. Already their salvage operation at the crashed Egg Carrier was under fierce attack.

He needed... they needed... more time for other "asymmetrical warfare" projects to pan out. At least things there were proceeding apace. Once that project came to fruition, it would be easy to bring the last few independent human city states, like Soleanna, back in line. Then, with humanity reunited and so empowered, they could sweep across the world and restore the natural order of things.

How he would relish that moment!

Mastermind unclenched his fist and took a deep breath to calm himself. Patience. It would not be wise to celebrate too early, and it was never productive to allow oneself to become angry or overly passionate about anything. That only led to clouded judgments and fatal mistakes.

A small chime alerted him to an expected incoming communication. It was Mya, no doubt with some more information about that Kitsune matter he had asked her and Weaver to look into. Mya Florentine - he had styled himself the moniker of Mastermind, but Mya was a true genius. One of GUN's ambitious "young turks," she had a keen and exhaustive intellect, and a ruthlessness he knew just how to make use of.

He remembered when she had first come to his attention: his spies within GUN a few years ago had informed him of a newcomer with an ambitious project to recreate the Black Arms as a slave army. It was a radical proposition. The damned Black Arms had been what cost mankind the war... well, them, and Robotnik's betrayal. The arrival of the Black Arms comet was what had forced the military to neutralize the native Mobian threat, and to build the array of space based weaponry that constituted the ARK and the Orbital Shield Ring.

Except that Gerald's great Shield Ring and Eclipse Cannon had never worked as promised, and the old man had become more obsessed with genetically engineering super powered black rats and curing his granddaughter's NIDS than protecting the planet and mankind's great legacy. Countless other scientists had toiled to finish Gerald's work before the Black Arms arrived, and all had failed. On the ground, even the supposedly quick "ten month war" against the Mobians stalled, due to Gerald's damned grandson. It was a disaster on every level.

Then, just as expected, the Black Arms comet arrived. Crushed between renewed Mobian opposition on the mainland, corrupt traitors from within, and the Black Arms from orbit, the old Federation had been annihilated. In the end, the Black Arms had been destroyed, but Overland itself was a devastated wasteland, the Orbital Ring and the ARK were gone, and the mainland and the colonies there were lost. Humanity survived in only a few Hidden Cities... ground based ARKs built as last resort contingencies. Cities like Station Square and Soleanna.

So, he had been rather stunned to hear that anyone would even think about resurrecting the hated Black Arms, even as a weapon to crush the Mobians and Robotnik. Mya's work in making a new Black Doom, one that could be controlled by its human handlers, was revolutionary. The first major "field test" of the new Black Arms against Downunda had been both success and failure, but from that moment on, Mya had been on his mind. She was just the sort of exemplary human being he wanted working under him... so to speak.

Central to her work was to unravel some of the more perplexing and frankly vexing aspects of Mobian physiology: most notably their proclivity towards manifesting Chaos Energy. There was nothing more troublesome than having to carpet nuke a section of otherwise pristine real estate simply to wipe out some glowing super powered mouse or hedgehog or whatever. If only Gerald hadn't turned traitor, he could well have unraveled these secrets already...! Regardless, when he had learned about some of that two tailed fox's recent activities, he had asked Mya to look into the situation. He had always had a hunch that the two tailed mutation in that boy could be something important.

"Mya," he spoke, as her call came through. The chestnut haired woman flicked a stream of dyed blonde back behind her ear. That little bit of gold was the only easy way to distinguish between her and her twin sister, Aya. As usual, she seemed all business.

"Sir," she began. "I called to confirm that we've finally made a breakthrough in getting the new specimens working properly. It was just as you suspected. The problem was in our in vitro fertilization and maturation procedures. They work fine for humans and normal Mobians..."

"But not these special types," Mastermind concluded. "Yes. I'd heard something similar when I researched those Mobian 'Chaos Magics' as they call them. It made sense that it would apply here as well."

"Well," Mya added with a smile. "It helped that we got such a rich sample to work with. I'll admit I was a bit unsure whether the scheme would even work. I didn't expect those Mobian smugglers would so readily trust the hardware we provided them."

"Still, it took a few tries. Out of the thirty subjects we impregnated with fertilized zygotes, eleven have expired. Thirteen of the surviving embryos have not tested for significant chaos energy generation. Of the remaining six, only three seem to have actually tapped into the Chaos Force itself at this point in their development. We hope to bring all six to term to better understand how gestation affects chaos sensitivity."

"Control species?"

"All vulpines between the ages of sixteen and twenty. They were the closest breed matches we could get our hands on. Again, our underworld contacts in The Ring were very helpful filling our requisition requests. We cleaned them up, checked to make sure they fit our requirements, and the prognosis looks good. I don't dare accelerate growth in the clones at this delicate stage. That was one of our mistakes with Subject N."

"Six months, then?"

"Eight, to be on the safe side, sir. We don't want to have to start from scratch. Once we've confirmed our preliminary findings and our data from before.... yes, I feel confident in going forward with more human trials."

"Excellent. We can wait. We must move carefully, Mya. It would not do for lives to be wasted because of incomplete research," he spoke earnestly. Human life was a precious thing, and not to be expended needlessly.

"I'll leave it in your capable hands," he continued, "I'm going out on a little fact finding mission. You are in provisional command until I return. I trust you won't let me down."

"Of course not sir," she stated with a crisp salute.

Mastermind nodded once more before rising from his seat and stepping out of the room, the guards by the door standing at attention as he walked by. Walking unescorted down the hallway, the soldiers stopped their usual routines and gave their commander the same salute Mya had done just a few moments earlier. Behind his mask, he allowed himself a brief self-indulgent smile.

Yes, his personal guard were loyal enough, and he could trust Mya's group as well. Aya Florentine and her associates were less... committed to his goals. That group would have to be watched. It especially wouldn't do for them to learn too much about the special projects he and Mya were betting the future of humankind on.

They simply wouldn't understand.

But they would... soon enough.

* * *

Tails went through the morning's routines and exercises with a smile and a spring in his step. In fact, he had done so for more than a week, ever since coming back from an ostensibly secret mission far to the west. He had let that slip a few days ago to both Tempest and Nail, claiming that he'd had a "great time with Rouge out west" and that the "vacation had been just what he's needed to unwind." It all sounded... frankly, really strange, out of character, and suspicious.

After a day or two, Tempest had contacted Sally, and between checking on how she was handling this ridiculous peace farce (as he liked to call it), he asked what was "far to the west" and what would be considered a nice vacation spot. She'd told him that there was a place called Casino Night out west, and that it was a lawless city of gambling, whoring and all manner of illicit and illegal activity. Apparently, some people considered that to be a fun place to unwind. Tempest couldn't quite wrap his head around it all.

After a while, he'd even worked up enough desperate curiosity to find Rouge in her little spy shack outside town and ask her about it. As expected, she still had some of the boy's smell clinging onto her, just as he had some of her scent despite his attempts to wash it off. She, too, seemed unusually upbeat and happy. It was immeasurably odd, and when she offered him a bitter drink of something called "coffee" he felt the need to leave before his head imploded.

What the hell was going on?

Were the two having some sort of affair together? He didn't dare ask outright - it was simply improper to delve into another kitsune's personal matters when the _turan'ha_ was all but over and they were accepted as adults - but it certainly looked that way. The two had gone on some sort of trip together, come back, and frequently ended up in each other's company. The boy's constant reek of bat confirmed it. They were definitely up to something together, and when men and women were up to something together outside a city in a secluded cabin, it didn't take a detective to guess what that was.

So: it had come to this, then.

Eventually, even Nail clued into things, despite his atrophied senses of smell. As he eventually confided in the older kitsune, the echidna didn't seem to know what to make of the situation. At first he had been concerned (as if Tempest hadn't), but then he had taken in the changes in their young charge: Tails was solidly attentive, engaging even! He listened and debated with Nail about even the most esoteric and kabalistic fields of Chaos Energy study, and Tempest noticed that the boy seemed to have a peace of mind he had lacked before. Even Rouge, from what they could see, was entirely pleased with how things were turning out.

There just wasn't much to complain about.

But still: it had come to **THIS**.

"Miles," Tempest said, hoping he didn't sound as anxious as he probably did. Next to him, Nail stood with his arms crossed and eyes closed... probably wishing he wasn't about to be in this conversation. Tails, currently relaxing after a hearty lunch (under Tempest's tutelage, his cooking had improved dramatically), looked up as his two sort-of-still-mentors curiously.

"Miles," Tempest said again. "We'd like to have a talk with you."

"About...?" the young kitsune asked.

"About...." Tempest trailed off. "About..."

"About safe sex," Nail finally said.

Silence.

Tails chuckled and looked up at the sky.

"That's it?" he asked. Both older Mobians sputtered for lack of a response.

"Miles, I've warned you before about polluting your bloodline!" Tempest finally declared. "Tradition states...!"

"I'm well aware," Tails interrupted him. "Don't worry about it."

"But," Tempest felt the need to keep at the subject, now that it had finally been broached. "But, you... and that bat..."

"What about Rouge and myself?" Tails asked innocently.

Tempest just sputtered.

Nail cleared his throat. "Tails. We simply wanted to remind you that you're only a young man. We don't want to see you in any sort of compromising situations."

"I know," Tails said, looking at the two of them with a friendly smile. "I'm touched that you guys want to give me the talk, but it really isn't necessary. Though, while you're here, Nail... I looked into that matter of technomagic that you brought up the other day. I was able to glean some new information from my contacts in GUN. Would you like to see?"

The young kitsune held out a datapad with one hand, smiling all the while.

It took a few seconds, but Nail relented and quickly started devouring the new information. Tempest had no idea what "technomagic" was, but he knew Nail was obsessed with learning what he could about different religious and magical arts. He had obviously been successfully diverted onto another topic. Still, the older fox couldn't help but wonder if the boy wasn't just being amiable. This was all just too strange.

"So, you two aren't...?" Tempest tried to ask.

Tails just smirked.

"I never said that."

Tempest raised an eyebrow in mute confusion.

"Relax," Tails said, leaning back against the tree behind him to stare at the clouds. "Its a nice day, isn't it? I think I'll take a quick run before I get back to work. Care to join me?"

That... did sound nice: an invigorating run through the woods, maybe find a new game trail far from the city? But still. Tempest couldn't help thinking something was up. Then again: the boy seemed fine and happy. He seemed to have grown into an upstanding (aka strong) kitsune. He was still a little on the runty side, but he had those weird chaos powers to compensate. This was just what he had hoped for, wasn't it?

Wasn't it?

* * *

"Something strange is going on."

The impromptu meeting involved neither Tempest nor Nail. Instead, Bunnie, Antoine, Cream and Rotor had decided to converge on Sonic's place. Sally, who couldn't be present in person, had to telecommute. Unfortunately, that meant using the monitor in Sonic's living room, which in turn meant he couldn't zone out and play video games. Instead he reclined against the couch with a bag of chips, silently praying the meeting ended so he could get back to some serious business. Like getting an A rank on that last level, damnit.

"I don't see what's the problem," Sonic groused, looking up at his guests and friends. "So my little bro is tappin' that. I say we congratulate him!"

"Sonic!" a trio of female voices snarled as one.

"Ok. Ouch. Please use your indoor voices," he grumbled, holding his ears.

"Rouge is a known criminal!" Sally explained. The digital image of her crossed her arms angrily. "Tails should know better than to get involved than with someone like that."

Sonic scratched his chin. "Um.. how so?"

"Sonic," Sally said, trying to keep calm. "Tails' knowledge of our military deployments and technical resources is unsurpassed. Who knows what he could let slip during any... um... potential pillow talk?"

"Please!" Sonic huffed. "That doesn't actually happen."

"How did Fiona learn about our formerly secret HQ last year again? The one we just rebuilt only to have it destroyed by the Suppression Squad?"

"Umm..."

"Or maybe I should ask if you know how I learned about how you and Chris used to..."

Sonic looked at his friends, still holding the remote for the monitor with the mute button depressed. Grinning, but quickly bit his lip and watched as Sally kept talking, completely unaware that she had been put on mute. Her gesturing and vexed expression did little to comfort any present as to what she was actually describing.

"...and, needless to say, we had to go and hunt down every single picture including Amy's collection of..."

"Hahaha," Sonic said the laugh rather than actually laughing. "Its funny story, really hilarious, but now isn't the time. We have serious stuff to talk about, Sal!"

"I like funny stories," Rotor said in a quiet voice.

"...thank the Source no one else knew about it. That boy had to have been the worst influence on you I've ever seen," Sally finally wound down. "Anyway... wait, what was the point again? Oh yes: the pillow talk."

"Yeah. that," Sonic bashfully conceded. "Let's talk about Tails instead of me, please."

"My point is that Rouge could be milking the poor boy for information. Our vital military secrets. This represents a serious potential security risk!" Sally concluded. "That isn't even counting the shock he'll have when he learns that she's just using him!"

Sonic started to open his mouth, but wisely closed it.

"Bunnie," Sally directed her response to the southern belle. "What do you think? How long has this been going on?"

"Ah didn't know much about it mahself," Bunnie explained, sitting down next to a quiet and pensive Antoine. "Cream was the one who figured it out."

"Ma'am," Cream spoke up, sensing she had the chance to do so. She was a little flustered being around so many Freedom Fighter legends, but it helped to calm the nerves when they acted like idiotic teenagers instead of infallible commanders and decision makers.

"For a while now, I've been working closely with Mr. Prower," she said, not sure how to address him in the company of his peers like this. 'Mr. Tails' just didn't sound professional, even though that was what she preferred. "Ever since that attack by the Babylon Rogues, as you'll recall."

"Go on," Sally prompted.

"Well, as you know, Mr. Prower..."

"Tails is fine, dear. He's only a little older than you are."

Which was beside the point: he was a commanding officer among the Freedom Fighters and someone she deeply respected. It felt a little odd not adding any honorific. She'd never call the Princess a nickname like "Sal" to her face.

"As you know, Tails was slightly delayed coming back from his excursion to the Blue Typhoon battleship. I believe he may have taken the opportunity to have... some sort of illicit rendezvous with Miss Rouge. Tails has often spoken fondly of his time working with GUN, and seemed sympathetic to their views on certain subjects."

"Revolutionary views?" Sally asked. It went unsaid that, by _revolutionary_, she meant _republican_.

"No Ma'am. He seemed to admire their scientific accomplishments mostly."

Sally nodded. "That makes sense. What does this have to do with Rouge?"

"Well, it is fairly well known that Miss Rouge has contacts with some human groups. I wouldn't be surprised if the two had met before, back in Station Square."

Everyone turned to the one Mobian who had been there.

Sonic shrugged. "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Sally inquired. "Didn't you know who he was spending time with?"

"I dunno," Sonic conceded. "It wasn't like I was always looking over his shoulder or anything. We hung out you-know-where and had adventures and stuff. Chris' family and GUN financed some of his work, I know that, and I knew he was taking some classes in the city."

"Sonic, those 'classes in the city' were him getting a university degree. And you didn't even know about it."

"Whatever," Sonic said with a shrug. "That's boring stuff. Tails knows I don't deal with things like that. And before you say, 'oh Sonic, why don't you care about what your friend is doing!' ...I do care! Just that he doesn't bug me with stuff he knows I'm not good with when we hang out. That's just the way Tails is. Not like anyone here knows what he spends most of his time doing anyway."

Sonic smirked at silencing everyone in the room. He had a point and they knew it.

"Tails never mentioned being... close to Rouge before," Rotor spoke up. "Yes, I did ask him about her before, and he never said anything that seemed endearing. I don't think they're just reigniting an old flame or whatever."

"I was seeing him tze other day," Antoine chimed in with his two cents. "He seemed very happy."

"He's getting laid, of course he's happy," Sonic deadpanned.

"Sonic!" There came the chorus of three again. The hedgehog hero sighed.

"That isn't everything though," Cream spoke up, having been interrupted before. "There's more."

All eyes fell on her.

"While I was surprised and a bit... put off by what I suspected, things got a bit stranger later. I'd scheduled an appointment with him three days ago, and found Rouge just about to leave. While neither said anything to me, it looked like she had been there for some time. The central room in Tails' hut was in a state of disarray I had not seen before."

"Tails is a real neat freak," Sonic confirmed. "They were definitely bumpin' uglies in there. I'm really gonna have to grill him for some juicy details next time..."

"Could you please be less of a... a guy?" Sally all but cried.

"I would," Sonic replied. "But I have a feeling you'd be disappointed when you get back from your trip."

Sally groaned. "Sonic!"

He just chuckled. Cream coughed again, to redirect their attention from another round of teasing and bickering. The less she learned lately about her mentors' personal lives, the less she wanted to hear.

"Mister Tails... Tails was quick to clean up, and he kept me from getting a good look around while I waited. However, based on what I did see, I would guess that Rouge happened to... interrupt him while he was working on classified material. I saw some schematics, and when it comes to Tails, I know everything he builds is pretty highly classified."

Bunnie made an angry "tsk" but said nothing.

"In my little bro's defense," Sonic said, quickly. "This is his first fling since that mess with Fiona."

"That doesn't excuse putting personal... affairs before national security," Sally lectured. "Thank you for keeping a spark eye open, Cream."

"Yes, Ma'am," the youngest Mobian present responded crisply.

"Tempest mentioned something was a bit off with Tails lately. I never thought it would be this serious."

"That guy said that, huh?" Sonic huffed. "If anything, this is his fault you know! Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he come here to make sure Tails didn't end up doing something like this?"

Sally's image wavered a bit, and Sonic inwardly smirked. He was getting pretty tired of Sally jumping to the defense of that jerk. It was like Geoffrey St. John all over again, except worse, because Tails seemed to be spending time with the other kitsune, too. It wasn't that he felt threatened by Tempest's "friendly" relationship with Sally, just that he didn't like the guy!

"Any suggestions on what we should do about this?" Sally asked, avoiding the argument.

"I'll have a talk with him..." Sonic offered. "Problem solved!"

"A talk? A talk about what exactly?"

"You know!" Sonic replied, all too eagerly. "About not doing your girlfriend where she can see, um... state secrets and stuff."

"Sonic... that isn't really going to help," Sally said with a sigh. "The root of the problem is Rouge. She'll just find some other way to get what she wants even if Tails is careful. I hate to admit it, but she'd good at what she does, and you boys don't always think with your big head when it comes to intimacy."

"Hey!" Sonic barked. "I take offense at that!"

"Any other suggestions?"

"We could simply be demanding they end tze affairs," Antoine provided, straightforward as always.

"They'll just continue in secret, hon," Bunnie argued. "You canna break up a couple tha' easily."

Antoine frowned, a little put off by having his idea so quickly dismissed.

Silence.

"I think Mina's still single, right?" Sonic asked, eyebrows wagging.

"Sonic!"

* * *

"You know, all your friends must think we're sleeping together."

Tails looked up from his work, eyepiece still hooked up and around his ear. In his hands, a delicate piece of machinery waited impatiently under a hot light. A number of empty unlabeled crates rested against a wall, partly broken up for easier storage. The kitsune's hair was slightly disheveled, but he looked quite pleased with himself, appearance aside.

Behind him, Rouge wore only a large bath towel.

"Well," he said, turning back to his work, bright flares of arclight highlighting his features. "That **was** rather the point of all this."

"You know, by now most guys would have at least tried _something_. Especially since we're _pretending_ to be having a secret affair."

"Probably."

Draping her arms over his chest, Rouge slid up behind him, whispering seductively into his ear, "I'm using your shower again. You can feel free to join me, if you like."

"My shower? Again?"

"You have hot water."

Tails grumbled. "Rouge."

Grudgingly, she backed off, an overlarge smile on her face at flustering him so easily. Slapping him lightly on the shoulder, she headed off to the bathroom. Tails didn't even turn to see her go, which rather defeated the purpose of her wearing the towel at all. Oh, she knew he thought about making their little illicit illusion a reality, but she also knew he wasn't yet comfortable with that fact. It reminded her of another Mobian, a certain "ultimate life form," who kept trying to prove to the world that he wasn't as mortal and fallible as he actually was.

Of course, the thought of _him_, and of what she had agreed to do, made her wince inwardly. She actually wasn't looking forward to it like she had said she would be, back when Tails had proposed the plan. That had mostly been bravado on her part, not that she would ever admit it. It also didn't help that she had been quite happy with living out being Tails "secret illicit lover." It wasn't often she spent time with other Mobians just talking and being taken care of. He'd even discretely taken her out to a few public places tonight, just to drive home the illusion.

He was actually quite a nice guy, killing and war making aside. She just hoped he didn't die tomorrow.

"I was serious before," she remarked over her shoulder. "You need a shower, and there's room in there for two."

To her amusement, his hand twitched.

Turning slightly, he regarded her with one blue eye.

"Thank you, but no."

* * *

Wave blinked, surprised into silence by the presence of the last two people she expected to see waiting for her in her room. The female, the fire using feline, sat on Wave's small bed with her fingers steepled together threateningly. Blaze blinked once, and next to her, the still standing albino hedgehog snapped his fingers.

The door closed behind Wave with an ominous thud.


	27. Crossing the Rubicon ii

Sitting cross-legged under the stars, Athair, the Prophet of the Ancient Walkers, opened his eyes. His aged body looked far worse than that of even his fathers and grandfathers in Haven. The weight of knowledge, of history itself, seemed to bear down on him, crushing his small frame with the choices made between darkness and light. He had been a Guardian, once. Now he was a Prophet, and he yearned for simpler times, when his concerns and troubles were not so… cosmic…

Perhaps, in time, Nail would understand this, also.

"You were correct." Athair let out a long sigh. "The Chosen One has Awakened. But... differently than you predicted."

Behind the old echidna, a figure crossed his arms and frowned.

"I had thought him more properly molded," the shadow spoke in a ageless baritone. "But there is a encouraging turbulence beneath the surface of his psyche. He may suffice, where so many others were found wanting."

"In no small part due to our interference."

"You sound so weary, Athair."

"I am," he admitted. "The Chosen One was so young when I first saw him. So fragile. So innocent. Now, we have forced his eyes open, and thrown him to the wolves."

"No, Athair. He is the wolf, thrown among sheep." The other Mobian chuckled smugly, and reached up, pulling back the hood of his blue robe. "And a wolf is just what we need. Just what I want. Nail did his job well. So did Tempest. Your student and my puppet."

"Will you appear to him? The Chosen One, I mean."

"Only when the time comes for him to know the truth behind his power… only when he is ready to know what it really means to be truly Chosen. He will be the Fourth and the last. So I will meet with him, outside of dreams, only when he is ready. And maybe…"

The being sometimes known as Merlin Prower stroked his short white beard.

"Maybe I will even let him know my true name..."

* * *

For the first time since coming back from Chemical Plant, Tails found himself unable to sleep. It didn't help that he was on the damn couch instead of his bed. But that wasn't really it: he was nervous. He was afraid. Much more so than he dared to let on, especially in front of Rouge. If it ever looked like he couldn't handle things on his end, he had feeling the pragmatic bat would start looking for an possible out. There was no room for trepidation when it came to this kind of work.

So he tried to sleep... and failed.

Restless, he tossed and turned on the small couch-turned-bed, trying in van to find that one perfect comfortable spot where he could drift off for a few hours. It proved as elusive as a workable unified field theory. For the last two weeks almost, he had lived life to the fullest and thrown himself into what he knew to be his certain and inevitable future. He had made peace with his demons, with his insecurities, with his fears and doubts. Now, tonight, he felt his resolve wavering in the face of that one critical moment. After tomorrow...

Gods and Source, after tomorrow there would be no turning back.

Burying the back of his head into the flaccid pillow, he started up at the ceiling. Things had come a long way since he had first started to notice the strange changes in his body. He was a scientist, and he had known enough about normal puberty and the rest to realize something different was at work here. Even when he finally analyzed his blood, and referenced Tempest's obscure stories, to find the truth... his understanding had not brought an equal peace of mind.

Kitsune weren't normal Mobians. This ridiculous "_turan'ha_" was proof enough of that. No other breed had to undergo such a rapid and dramatic phase of physical development (well, except the insect breeds that had pupae, he supposed). It was all fake. All artificial! He certain of it. The science all led to one irrefutable and ugly truth: kitsune, probably the entire race, were all engineered artificially, or had been in the past.

He had been so relieved when Tempest had shown up, apparently proving that the two tailed "mutation" was normal and natural. It felt like he was normal, like he was natural, for the first time in his life. Now that had all been turned on its head. He wasn't natural after all. He wasn't normal. He was just one of a hundred thousand manufactured freaks. Who knew what had even done it? The kitsune were supposedly ancient... or was that a lie, too? He was no sociologist, and he couldn't tell how long kitsune genes had been existing "free range" without other kitsune to study as a reference point.

The point was, that he was just an organic machine.

It was fitting in a way but off-putting in most others. He thought of Fiona - not the organic one, but the gynoid he had rebuilt and repaired. All the time, he had thought them so different, but they weren't, were they? He built her; others had built him. That was what it meant to be kitsune, and that was the truth the kitsune Traditions worked to hard to obscure and conceal. That one, simple, ugly, stinking truth.

Yes, he had come a long way... he had even accepted it, mostly. He had slept soundly for days, but tonight he had no such luck or peace. There was a good chance he would die tomorrow, and his mind seemed to want to spend its last night reiterating all the concerns and doubts he had thought laid to rest. Alone on that couch, he felt adrift in a sea of his own unwanted emotions.

"It isn't just a matter of believing in myself," he thought, staring at his bare hand. "I need to accept who I am and the choices I make. Tomorrow... I'm going to betray everyone I've ever loved. I'm going to become a monster. A pariah. I need to accept that."

Easier said than done.

Closing his eyes for a few minutes, he felt a weight at the edge of the couch. Taking a look, he saw Rouge sitting near his feet, staring at him with teal colored eyes. Pulling in his knees, he sat up and rested his feet on the floor. He certainly wasn't getting any sleep tonight, but maybe...

"Tomorrow, huh?" he asked, broaching the subject a little timidly.

"Yeah," was all she said at first. "I... " but she had a hard time continuing.

He put up a confident grin, like he had seen Sonic use so often.

"I guess I'm a little excited," he said, and looked away. "And a little nervous."

A hand rested on his own, shocking him with the contact. Neither of them had gloves on.

"I believe in you," he heard.

He faced her, and she must've been able to see on his face what he was thinking.

"You're one of the smartest guys I know. You're been working on this since Chemical Plant, and you're going to see it through," Rouge said, a small smile lighting up her eyes. "That's what I believe."

"Thanks," he said, and meant it for once. "I... I think I needed to hear that."

She looked down at her lap, and for a moment neither said anything. In the low light, Tails could see the thin white sheet wrapped around her shoulders. He'd always found her attractive in an animalistic sort of way - a way he patently rejected and found repulsive - but this time, she looked vulnerable. He found it far more desirable than any of her other attempts to be seductive.

"I'm..." he found his voice after a moment. "I'm making you something in case something goes wrong tomorrow."

She perked up at that.

"It isn't a jewel," he said, not surprised all by the reaction. "Its one of my shields. To protect you... just in case."

"Miles," she said, and he cut her off, expecting the response.

"I won't take no for an answer," he spoke up, trying to sound firm. "Shadow's dangerous and unstable. You can't predict how he'll act when the situation gets out of control."

"Thank you," she finally said, letting him have his way. For another long moment, they sat in the darkness, their hands still touching.

Tails felt them drawing a bit closer, and had to bit back the strange feelings coursing through his veins. Academically, he realized what this was: it was an intimate moment. His pulse was much more pronounced and erratic than before. His sense of touch seemed magnified. Yes, he knew what this was. Terrifyingly, he realized he realized it. By the Source - he was going to kiss her!

He hadn't since Fiona. No. Not since Fiona, and then moments later, she had tried to lead him to his death. He had never been very "good" at intimacy, and Rouge had been no exception. It made him feel self conscious and vulnerable and it impaired one's judgment, that wonderful mental faculty he valued above all else. But it wasn't just that he wanted to kiss her... he wanted her to kiss him. He wanted mutual physical contact, affirming and all consuming.

Their lips touched before he could fully process the situation and its ramifications. For a second or two, they brushed gently against each other, not fully touching. He instinctively licked his lips, and felt his tongue touch hers. Her breathing sped up; he both heard it and felt it. Then he felt her hand on his shoulder, wrapping around his neck, and it was all too late to academically digest. He was under the blanket with her, and they were kissing, and it was all completely out of his control and experience.

It wasn't what he had imagined she would be like: she was so confident, so overpoweringly aware of her sexuality, that he had always thought she would be like a force of nature. Instead, she was curious and almost timid. He found his hand running through her hair, still soft and slightly dewy from her shower a few hours ago. Her own hand moved from his shoulder to the base of one of his ears, and he sighed as he felt her run her bare fingers up to the tip.

They broke apart, and Rouge pushed him back.

"What?" he hated sounding petulant, but knew he probably did at that point.

"Couch," she said, pointing down. Then, as if informing a two year old, she pointed off to the side. "Bed."

And with that, she stood up and headed for the latter.

For a few stunned seconds, Tails sat numbly on the couch, genius level intellect processing what she had said and what had happened at a literal snail's pace. Turning to the bedroom door he saw Rouge had conveniently, and invitingly, left it slightly ajar. Looking down at the couch, then back at the door, Tails scrambled onto his feet and threw what was left of his caution to the wind.

* * *

Sitting on the roof, masked by a sheen of chaos energy, Lara Su frowned.

She'd never been particularly happy with those two being together in any capacity, in one time loop or any another. Sure, it had happened, which meant it was likely to happen again, and sure: she had even plucked a few heartstrings from a distance to make sure they "got along" a bit better than they would have. Probably. But playing cupid in this case was galling.

Rouge was a liability. And an opportunist.

Hell! _Mina Mongoose_ would have been better!

It wasn't like she was jealous either. She had one of his Sol Emerald to prove just how much more important she was. This was just one last little fling before things became serious. Damn timelines! This was definitely one of the things she would've been secretly happy not to see work out a second time.

"Are you going to sit around moping like this all night, Lara?"

Tikal, annoying thousand year old brat, choose that moment to manifest herself. Lara sighed; this was just what she needed right now. Having the spirit ("Chaos Waveform! Not spirit!" Miles would say) of the former guardian of the former Master Emerald stuck in her head had been both informative and vexing. But mostly vexing.

She appeared ad she always did, as a fourteen year old echidna priestess from who knew how many millennia ago. It was at least one, and after that, who really cared to count? She was as old as dirt, but Tikal still seemed to enjoy her new freedom by acting like a brat. Worse: a know-it-all brat, who did actually tend to know it all.

"And where have _you_ been?" Lara asked with an angry huff.

"Everywhere and nowhere," Tikal cryptically replied. Lara frowned at her. "Ok, I couldn't manifest myself until the timelines started to synch back up. I think. but 'everywhere and nowhere' sounds so much cooler!"

Lara hit her face in her hands.

"Oh, don't be so moody," Tikal admonished the other girl, sitting down next to her. "You know what he always said whenever he saw that look on your face: that's the Emerald talking, not you."

"The Emerald is a part of me!" Lara growled.

Tikal sighed, comfortingly leaning against the body she was currently stuck in.

"You know what he's like now. And even if he changed, he'd always assume it was the Emerald. Its just like with that robot girl."

"I wish I could remove it," Lara said after a few seconds. "If only to prove he's wrong." Tucking her legs in and wrapping her arms around them, Lara closed her eyes. "It doesn't matter. Things are back on track... like they should be."

"Except for that thing with Iblis," Tikal reminded her, sinking Lara's spirits even further down.

"Yeah. Except that."

"I can actually help there, though!" Tikal perked up, and grabbed Lara's arm to try and get her to stand up. "Come on, I know where the old man is!"

"Old man?" Lara asked, trying to connect the nickname with an actual person. Did she mean...?

"Merlin?" Lara said the name quietly, like a curse. "He's here?"

"He's always been here," Tikal said. "And I'm not just being cryptic! That old man was ancient when I was a kid."

"You're still a kid!"

"Whatever!" Tikal waved that off.

"Well, he was the one who sealed you and Chaos, but..." Lara gave her mental companion a questioning look. "If he's around, why hasn't he tried to contact me? I have one of the Sol Emeralds! That must make me stand out. Why not show up and help me out?"

Tikal blinked at the foolishness of Lara's inquiry.

"Oh yeah," the echidna girl realized, slapping a fist into her palm as if having a revelation. "Because he's an old fart who likes to watch people flail around and manipulate them! I bet if I'd done something really stupid when I got here that he'd have showed up right from the start!"

"Probably," Tikal guessed. "You are doing his work without even needing to be told."

Lara raised a fist to the sky, flames of determination raging around her. "Demigod or not, from this day forward I will devote myself to making his life miserable!"

"Yea!" Tikal pumped her fist and giggled. "And I'll help!"

* * *

Merlin, timeless master and maker of the Chaos Emeralds, felt a sudden and inauspicious premonition starting to form. What was all _that_ about?

* * *

That morning, for the first time, he left first.

Or at least, he tried to. With both of them outside, Tails lingered at the door, turning to take a long look at her. It was all too public, and despite all that had happened, it made Rouge blush. It was one thing to say they were screwing around but not actually be doing anything. It was quite another for the whole thing to take on a much more concrete dimension and be real rather than rumor, fact instead of fabrication.

Rouge wasn't sure how much genuine affection there was between them. They got along well enough mostly because they had a set of common goals, ambitions and interests. They had slept together because it felt right and because each found the other attractive. For a while she had wondered if her partner even had more than a passing interest in the female species but last night had proven to be a conclusive argument for the defense. They got along and it felt good; which was enough, really.

"Seventy two hours," he reminded her. "I'll see you then."

"If things don't work out..."

"I'll take responsibility."

She nodded hastily, and he turned to go.

"Don't think I'll wait for you if you're late!"

"You're not that type," he said over his shoulder. "So I'll be on time... Later."

Watching him go for only a second, Rouge pivoted smartly and went her own way. They both had their missions today, and they both had quite a bit of traveling ahead of them. In her case, it involved a designated courier taking her out of the city. Once in one of the public stations to the south, she'd arranged for an old friend in the smuggler trade to take her west. Far to the west.

Just her luck, she hardly got halfway out of the Old Town before running into a bit of trouble. Seeing it coming some distance away, Rouge resigned herself to the confrontation and locked the wheels of her luggage. There was no point in making a scene just yet. Instead, the bat put on a friendly smile and waited for the authorities to arrive.

They did so, led by a passingly familiar face.

It was that girl from before.

Cream marched up in full Freedom Fighter fatigues, with two flanking agents as muscle. They were mostly there for appearances. From what she had read, Cream knew Rouge to be at least as combat capable as Sally herself. The woman even tangled with chaos powered types like Knuckles. Luckily, no one was here for a fight.

She had orders to "talk" to Rouge about the problem she had stirred up. That was just fine by Cream. Tails was a very important and special person, to the nation, to the cause, and even to her. He may not have known her for very long, but she had always known of him. She liked to think there was some mutual respect to it, too. He had spoken to her, shared things with her, that she doubted he had with anyone else. This batty outsider had no right to interfere and take advantage of the situation!

Cream gritted her teeth at the thought. Something had to have been done to him, impairing his judgment in some way. Her money was on Rouge: an uncommon thief and notorious flirt. Had she seduced him for her own gain? Cream couldn't prove it - not yet - but it seemed likely. Given this highly sensitive situation, it was only prudent that something be done.

"Hello there," Rouge said, waving to them as they approached. She seemed completely unconcerned by a confrontation. Did she have her claws sunk that deeply into him?

"How can I help you?" the she-bat asked in as amicable a tone of voice as Cream had ever heard.

"We'd just like to have a little talk, if you don't mind?" Cream walked up to the slightly taller winged Mobian. "Come with us, please?"

"I'm in a bit of a rush, actually," Rouge replied. "We can talk here."

Cream balked. This was the kind of place to have a talk about... these things! It was a public square on the way to the city transport depot. There were a hundred people coming and going!

"I..." Cream quickly adapted to the situation. "If you prefer. I wanted to talk about Mr. Prower."

"Miles, you mean. And I can guess what you came here to say. I didn't do a thing to him," Rouge said, a self-satisfied smirk making her intentions crystal clear. "In fact, he's the one that's done some things to me. **Very** good things."

The two agents chuckled at the insinuation. For her part, Cream gasped, flustered by how Rouge had brought a topic like that up in public in front of Scource-knows-who.

"We... by which I mean his friends... are concerned that you are taking advantage of his situation."

"We're just having a bit of fun, that's all. We used to work quite closely together, professionally I mean," Rouge lied flawlessly. "Now we can enjoy each other's company in other ways."

The blush rising up on Cream's ears only confirmed the poor girl's inability to really deal with the situation here, where people were coming and going out of her control. Rouge has guessed that the girl had some lingering ulterior motives for getting involved. It was rather obvious, even after just that one run in the other day.

Rouge laughed. "I guess there just weren't any women around here he found particularly interesting, you know?"

"Just what do you mean by that?!"

Rouge's cordial smile morphed into a smug grin.

"He was doing just fine before you came along!" Cream all but snarled. She was normally quite a nice Mobian, but this shady thief of a bat was well on her way to pressing all the wrong buttons in the span of less than a minute.

"He was?" Rouge asked, sounding mildly surprised. "That isn't what I've heard."

"Oh?"

"The way he told it, he was frustrated by the total absence of any cosmopolitan women around. He said that I was a godsend. You do know what cosmopolitan means, don't you?"

Cream's scowl deepened.

Rouge tapped her chin in mock-thought. "I can't say I'm surprised. This is a nice little city, but it can't hold a handle to Station Square or Casino Night. There's no real culture here, so of course the girls here are going to be bucolic. Country types, I mean. What Miles wanted was someone who could speak and think on his level, you see? Did I explain that slowly enough?"

Cream shook, struggling to control herself. She took a step towards Rouge, just enough to whisper. "I know what you're up to. We know. If anything suspicious happens, we're going to come down on you like a thousand fucking bricks."

Rouge had to keep a chill from running down her spine. The girl, sweet as she had first appeared, could be rather nasty when she really, really wanted to be. It was cute. Especially because, if Miles came through, the shit was about to hit the fan in a really big way.

"I'll keep that in mind," Rouge replied with a shrug. "But, like I said, it was just a little spring fling."

Cream glared at her as if there were a thousand things she wanted to say, but no way to properly say them all. Rather than wait and give her a chance, Rouge leaned forward and whispered right back.

"If you want to yiff him, you can go ahead. I don't mind."

Predictably, Cream's eyes grew wide as saucers. Her mouth went up and down, but the wind seemed to have blown completely out of her sails... as well as lighting them on fire. It probably be minutes before the girl managed an real response.

"Well, this has been fun, really, but I have to catch my flight. Ta!" Rouge patted the younger girl on the shoulder and slowly walked away, carelessly pulling her carryon luggage behind her without a worry in the world. Cream turned, struggling to think of some sort of comeback. The two flanking agents were just smiling in amusement.

As Rouge went through security, she found that the exchange had actually left her in a better mood than she had been in before. She didn't begrudge Tails' friends butting their noses in the little affair... how could she? The whole point had been to distract them with it, draw attention to it, and get them worked about something completely irrelevant. they were acting just like they were supposed to.

It was just sort of... funny.

Then, halfway through one of the terminal security screens, Rouge realized something. Almost certainly, she had popped Tails' cherry last night. The thought literally made her laugh out loud, much to the consternation of the confused security personnel around her. Rouge's sensitive hearing even picked up another passenger complain quietly about the 'crazy chick' on the plane.

Still chuckling to herself, Rouge thought about that revelation. She really hadn't thought much about it before, but it certainly explained his... enthusiasm. But no wonder his friends were all worked up! She'd taken their poor little friend's virginity! There had to be an award or something for finally screwing a guy who had turned into a chaos powered boy-god before getting laid. It was a civic duty to break ground there, if only for the benefit of the girl he eventually ended up with.

And now Rouge found herself regretting she didn't drop more innuendo in that conversation. Something like, "you'll thank me for it later," or, "he's such a quick study! A-plus!" That would have been hilarious! Plus, the sex itself hadn't been bad at all. Definitely up there as far as lovers went.

That was only part of it, though.

Waiting to board the designated flight out of the Hidden City, Rouge ran her tongue over her small fangs. She could almost taste the hint of his blood lingering there, teasing her with its power and vitality. She was half blood drinker, thanks to her ugly savage of a mother, so the urge for it had never really been a concern for her. She had had the occasional taste now and then but never very frequently. In the heat of the moment, sometimes these things happened (in retrospect, they usually happened), but few males complained. But Miles' blood was different. It wasn't coppery or acidic, it was almost sweet…

Had to be the chaos energy.

Sonic or Knuckles would almost certainly have the same affect. Rouge was fortunate enough that her barely functional racial echolocation had mutated into a form of chaos sensitivity, a "radar" of sorts, so it made sense that she would be receptive to it in other ways, too. there were no weird transformations or anything, but being able to "taste" it was a nice surprise and something only she could really appreciate and enjoy. She'd have to mention it next time she and Tails met up.... just in case it caused any strange side effects.

When it came to Chaos Energy, it was always best to err on the side of caution.

* * *

T minus sixty four hours

"I'm hit! I'm hit! Oh god… it…!"

"Another wave! Sir, we can't hold this position!"

"We can't… aaAA!!!"

"Damn it! Fall back! Fall back!"

"Command! This is Corporal Westfield! Major Vandov is dead! Tripwire Fifteen has been broken! We can not hold the position! Repeat: position is tits up! **Can Not** Be Held!"

"Sector Fifteen has been compromised, Captain Florentine."

Inside the command center of the Egg Carrier, Aya Florentine silently cursed. They were secure, at least for the moment, but the situation was rapidly deteriorating. On numerous screens around her, she could see the assault as it broke through one defense cordon after another. This was the newest and most secure part of the refitted Egg Carrier, designed to accommodate an overlander command staff, but Aya could swear that she almost felt the explosions outside, instead of just seeing them. Looking from the monitors to one of the many human operators monitoring the situation and running the still beached ship, she slammed her fist on the slightly oversized chair – built not for her, but for Mastermind, the man they all served. At least in theory if not in practice.

She had been ordered to secure and refit the Egg Carrier as the flagship of the New Navy. They had been working on it for two months and found solutions to everything except the hoverdrive issue. The Egg Carrier was just too massive for a normal hoverdrive. Even the most advanced and powerful drives could barely lift the big ship off the ground, and even then only at the expense of every other ship system. They needed time to find a work-around, and the damned ceasefire with those Mobians had diverted more than half the Eggman's army and airfleet right into GUN's lap.

Now it looked like they'd have to scuttle the Egg Carrier and retreat further east.

"Mr. Jorgen…" she said, trying to keep calm despite the panicked situation. "Pull back all human assets to the fifth defense cordon. Have them begin setting up EM mines on all avenues of attack. Deploy all robotic and auxiliary systems to the fourth and third lines. When they break through the third cordon, close all bulkheads and detonate the secondary and tertiary ammunition storage facilities."

"But ma'am… that'll gut the ship!"

"And cripple their forces!" Aya gave her subordinate a hard glare. "Do it!"

"Yes, ma'am. Deploying…"

"It will destroy much of the ship… but the ship can be rebuilt. Every human life lost, however, is a tragedy. We have no choice if we are to survive this…"

Aya nodded to herself and looked back up at the displays. Additional reports came in from other subordinates as Overlander combat units fell back from their positions. On the master display, overlaid on the schematics of the Egg Carrier, Aya watched as the red-schemed infiltration secured strategic positions inside the ship, and paused to regroup.

"Camera seventy four has something, Captain!"

"Put it on my personal view screen," Aya commanded, and looked down at the much smaller display that was attached to the command chair. She narrowed her eyes at it. "Metal Sonic."

"All units are in position! Mines are being placed."

"Good. Good…" Aya turned away from the life feed from outside that showed the commander of the robot scourge and his personal entourage. Metal Sonic was a major threat in and of himself, and he was obviously commanding Robotnick's forces, given that floating 'Tails Doll' type AIs surrounded him. The weaponless (or it was assumed that they were weaponless – none had ever been captured intact) Tails Doll constructs were, Intel believed, the 'brains' behind every regiment and division of enemy troops.

They, and Metal Sonic, had to be destroyed for there to be any sort of victory.

Important though it was, the Egg Carrier wasn't Mastermind's primary base of operations. That was the city of Tesslik, two hundred miles to the north. They had gotten off a distress call before the outside of the Carrier had been secured by the enemy, and that had been over five hours ago, but Aya knew help was still a long was off. The Carrier had most of Mastermind's crack overlander troops guarding it, and a substantial number of Droid units, but none of his Special Corp of Mutates. They'd done well at first, despite that.

The robots had been forced to make repeated breaches into the ship itself, and even then every breach was hard fought by tenacious human marines, and then the entire area sealed off by self sealing the bulkhead with foaming armorete when it became impossible to hold. That had delayed Robotnick's forces long enough for the active weapons emplacements to inflict substantial losses on the enemy, but by now, most of those emplacements were destroyed or disabled, force fields had been deactivated, and the marines had been forced back to less and less easily defensible positions.

The fifth cordon was their last.

After that, there would be no falling back.

"Were is Mya, damn it?" Aya worried about her twin sister in Tesslik. What if another vanguard assault had attacked there? What if no help would ever make it? No: that seemed unlikely. They were fighting like demon's here. It seemed more likely that they were being left to fight to the last man while everyone else pulled back.

"Captain Aya!"

"I see it…" She answered sharply, watching the main screen as the red dots began to advance against six of the eleven cordon points. Her own Droid forces, represented by blue, took up defensive positions, and the lines stopped briefly as half dozen firefights broke out less than a hundred meters from the command center itself. The red dots, representing Robotnik's Combot Legion, began to wink out, but they were replaced in seconds by a steady flow of reinforcements from outside the ship. It was almost like a solid line, there were so many…

Mines quickly began to decimate the enemy ranks, but Aya knew that the Droids wouldn't hold very long against that kind of pressure. They could taken down a dozen enemies for every casualty and still lose.

Steadily, inexhaustibly, the pressured defenses began to weaken. In such tight spaces, and under such duress, the Droids were at a severe disadvantage against the heavier and equally armed Combots. Inside the ship, there was no way to take advantage of their superior accuracy or AI. All that mattered was volume of fire and an ability to soak up attrition. Only in the wildest simulations had Robotnick thrown this many of his forces against them. It was impossible…

Then, when the Droids were finally overrun in six of the eleven sections, and pressured heavily in the other seven, the last of the bulkheads were closed. In short order, the remaining Droids were crushed by sheer weight of numbers. It would buy them a little more time, but that was all it could do. Once the bulkheads were cut through, the Combots would be free to stream into the core of the Egg Carrier. The Command Center itself would be under direct siege. Even the last of their EM Mines would only cripple the first wave. There were ten times that waiting to take the place of any that fell.

It was… hopeless…

"Everyone. Check your sidearms," she said, wearily. "You all know what we must do if this station falls. Load the protocols for judicious self destruct. None can say we didn't hold the line as long as humanly possible. None can say we faltered."

There was silence on deck as the command staff did as ordered, checking and reloading their meager sidearms. They were anti-Mobian weapons, designed for unarmored targets, but against a Combot or Shadowbot… The Command Center's massive blast door would delay the enemy further, probably force them to seize the rest of the ship first, but then it would be over. She and everyone else would end up like their friends and loved ones in Station Square, obliterated beyond memory…

"Heaven help us," Aya whispered.

"Captain! Captain! Long range surface sensors are detecting something... massive EMP!"

"EMP?" Aya checked the display on one of the secondary screens.

* * *

Tails stood alone atop his assault GEAR, fifty thousand feet above the battlefield below, one hand behind his back and the other held out palm up. A ruby tinted eyepiece fitted over the right side of his face. Flattening his palm, he reached over to his left arm and began typing onto a holographic keyboard projected by hidden circuitry in his glove. A red circle appeared with black and yellow stripes, with a loud "WARNING" in the center.

Flanking the kitsune fox, a half dozen unmanned autonomous Assault GEARS flew in tight formation, breaking through a small cloud. Each one carried, in lieu of a passenger, a large cylindrical package tightly bound and secured in place. Tails gradually lowered his arms to his sides and let out a deep breath. This high up, ice crystals mixed with the visible breath, leaving a faint trail like a cloud in his wake.

"Eggman..."

Two of the GEARs took off, accelerating ahead of the others. Followed by two more in their heels. Then two more. Soon, Tails was alone once more, between the clouds and the heavens.

"Consider this my declaration of war."

Less than a minute later, two small suns set on the battlefield down below. The buds of yellow and orange bloomed, even as two and then four similar blossoms of fire twisted and crowned far below. Waves of overpressure blew past the kitsune, fifty thousand feet in the sky and fourteen kilometers from the actual blast zones. Clouds crumpled around him and tore into pieces, dyed black and red as the light below outshone the midday sun.

On the ground, nearly a thousand Combots vaporized instantly.

Fifty-ton Caterkiller warbots were flung through the air, some coming to a crashing halt more than a mile from where they had once been stationed. Even larger spider shaped giant mecha, the largest more than a hundred tons, were tossed across the battlefield like tumbleweeds. Thousands more hovering Shadowbots and E-class assault mechs came apart under the stresses and heat, breaking apart like a shower of leaves in a gale force wind. One massive _Egg Phoenix_ class Mobile Support Depot crumpled like a tin can the size of eight city blocks.

A cluster of shockwaves ran first through the enemy ranks, and then over hills and forest. Trees swayed and burned like matchsticks. Four kilometers away from the battlefield, what few animals remained in the area found half their bodies covered in third degree burns. Six kilometers away, flocks of battered birds fell out of the air. Eight kilometers away, anyone unfortunate enough to have been looking in the direction of the battle would have been blinded instantly by the flash. Far further field, the electromagnetic pulse shorted out unshielded circuitry and blew out regional communications.

In twenty seconds, Hell came to Mobius... taking more than half of the Combot Legion with it. Watching through one eye, protected by the tinted eyepiece, Tails blinked a few times to correct the minor flashing in the periphery of his vision. It was hard to imagine that these piddling little blasts were, for the time being, the best he could manage. Each was barely equivalent to five kilotons of TNT. He knew for a fact that the humans had once used bombs in the tens of megatons.

What was that saying? Peace through superior firepower?

No: this was simply Destruction, nothing more or less.

"But without destruction there can be no creation. Without a fire, the forest becomes choked and unhealthy. In which case... I guess I never had a choice," Tails thought, still taking in the scene below.

"The forest fire. The lightning strike!" His hands clenched to fists as he accelerated towards the conflagration. "No regrets."

* * *

"Low yield nuclear devices of some sort, Captain! Reading minor damage to the hull... it looks like their deployment was designed not to damage the Egg Carrier. Not picking up and friendly IFF."

"Not one of ours?" another officer asked, surprised.

"External feed!" Aya yelled, and the main monitor switched to one of the surviving watch stations outside the ship. The area was transformed. The battlefield before had been scarred, but now it was cratered and burned clean. Rubble and wreckage was strewn everywhere and swirling dust storms scoured the land.

"Captain…" The lieutenant turned in his chair, until he was facing her. "You don't think…?"

Aya frowned and returned to her chair. "Keep comms active."

Holding the inadequate pistol in her right hand, Aya knew all too well that the difference between a miracle and a disaster was often a matter of what side one was on. Eying the screen with a mixture of hope and fear, she licked her lips, not even realizing they were dry.

"So, she actually came through?" Aya quietly mused.

* * *

Inside the Egg Carrier.

Metal Sonic felt the blasts as they shook him to the core.

He turned, facing the assembled Tails Doll AIs. One moment he was directing his Combots forward, deeper into the human hideout, and then, in the next moment, the floor shook. His audio sensors picked up the distinct sound of explosions. There was no mistaking it.

"Status," he demanded, monotone.

The Dolls didn't reply and Metal knew the nine of them were exchanging information at incredible speed, sharing hundreds or thousands of recordings and sensor inputs, from as many sources. Their stitched faces, however, betrayed nothing. Grotesque creations, they resembled nothing more than patchwork husks – empty shells – stitched together from the preserved remains of slain Mobians.

Floating eerily with large glowing pins stuck into their limp heads, the Tails Dolls were perhaps the eeriest of the Eggman's creations when it came to Mobian sensibilities. Even Metal, accustomed as he was, found them unnerving. Not their appearance, mind you. He cared nothing for that. It was the powerful artificial intelligences within that he found off-putting. They were spies and information gatherers, and did nothing else. They didn't even seem to have a personality, despite the massive power of their networked AIs.

"Conclusion: we are under attack by weapons of unknown manufacture." The nine Dolls spoke at the same time in perfect synch. "Conjecture: analysis corresponds closely to the 'Ivy Bravo' device used in The Ring, nineteen days ago. Capabilities are similar; scaling for increased energy output."

Ivy Bravo. That had been the unusual explosive device used against Colin Junior - Snively - and his forces. Archived reports indicated that it had been equivalent to roughly two or three hundred tons of TNT. Unfortunately, the report was anecdotal. Snively had survived only by using an emergency eject, and all recording equipment in his mecha had been damaged, including the shielded black box. Only some basic data had been analyzed and distributed to relevant Underbosses and Command AIs.

"Losses?" Metal demanded.

"Mobile Repair and Re-supply Depot, EEV 027091, _Egg Phoenix_ class, heavily damaged. Conclusion: total loss. EEV 010772, 010458, 010891 _Egg Illusion_ class, heavily damaged. Conclusion: total loss. EEV 036022 _Egg Slasher_ class, moderate damage. Conclusion: fifty percent functional."

Another Tails Doll then spoke: "Query ground forces; returning ping. Estimate recent combat losses. Combot classes: two thousand eight hundred and fifteen destroyed; one thousand four hundred and seven damaged and unable to function above sixty percent. Six hundred and twenty two damaged but functional. Six hundred and eighty three fully functional."

"Robian losses at ninety seven percent," another Doll added.

Metal nodded. The losses were crippling. This latest attack had knocked out more than half of the Combot Legion. 4,222 units were essentially out of commission. The humans had already mauled the legion simply getting to this point. They had left the Empire with over eight thousand Combots, and were now down to 1,305 in varying states of repair.

"Summarize armored and assault assets."

"Fourteen Heavy Armored units non-functional. Five heavily damaged. One functional. Shadowbot losses at eighty five percent; one hundred and seven units still combat capable. E-class losses at sixty percent; eighty units still combat capable."

Metal processed that data. He had been tasked with recovering the Egg Carrier at all costs, and to press the attack against the humans. Things had been going well. None of their projections had taken into account a sneak attack like this. The majority of the air fleet was still pursuing the human New Navy in the East. Metal had opted to leave only a single _Egg Slasher_ class in the area to defend the landed Mobile Base and troop carriers.

Did they have enough combat capable resources to press on and take the Egg Carrier? It seemed like they did, but what was the nature of this attack on their rear? Their supply lines had been cut and the bulk of the Legion devastated. They had the humans holed up in the ship. It made more sense to turn and secure the area behind rather than press on and potentially end up in a vice.

"Warning: incoming stealth craft detected. Chaos Waveforms detected. Extrapolating response. Initiating counterattacks."

The gemstones embedded in the Tails Dolls' foreheads began to glow.

"Identify the waveform." Metal's eyes flashed red. "Who did this?"

"Warning: detecting munitions," The nine answered. "Units are currently… Update: Anti-Air defense net penetrated. Withdrawing Anti-Aircraft batteries. Update: Sensor relays are being targeted… update: sensor network is under attack… Initiating counterattack…"

"The waveform!" Metal snarled, as annoyed by the Dolls' toneless voices as the situation itself. "Is it the hedgehog?"

"Statement: waveform analysis complete," a Doll declared in monotone. "Collaborating. Confirming. ID: Alpha-class Priority Target 07-05-12, Miles Prower."

Metal's eyes glowed. "The sidekick? He did this? Alone? Impossible."

"Correction: not impossible." The dolls chorused. "Improbable. A scenario similar to this was calculated for pervious to this attack."

"Oh?" Metal asked. "And what scenario was that?"

The Dolls' dull eyes reflected some passing light. "Aggressive Intervention."

"Warning: communications with Eggnet disrupted." Another Doll announced. "Satellite Charlie Baker Nine is not responding. Conclusion: satellite destroyed by unknown weapons system."

"No matter!" Metal looked down at his fist – his steel claws gleaming and polished. "The assault will continue. Thin out the first wave set to attack these human scum… almost certainly, they have booby-trapped the avenues of attack. With this other business, we will not have the liberty of taking this slowly or carefully. You will march the Combots in fours and detonate any devices prematurely along the three secondary corridors. When they are clear, the next eight waves will drive forward and seize the inner facilities. I trust your vaunted calculations show that a mere hundred and sixty Combots should be able to finish this job?"

The nine Dolls paused for a millisecond before replying, "They do."

"Good. Then I leave it in your capable hands…" Metal raised his claws to eye level. "I will deal with the sidekick."

"Caution is advised." Just one of the Dolls said this, and Metal paused in his exit.

"Caution, did you say?"

"Explanation: observation indicates that Miles Prower has access to a high reserve of Chaos Energy. The subject is currently not in a known transformed state, however, energy readings are abnormally high. Target had also displayed a use of previously unknown weapons systems. With the Eggnet down, we will be unable to assist you in the field and you will be unable to summon aid."

"I am aware of all this." Metal's voice synthesized with true self-confidence. The Tails Dolls may be more advanced AIs, but they had no pride, no feeling, no true sentience. They were just… computers. He was a REAL AI. Cycling up his internal power plant, Metal Sonic walked past a small army of Combots all waiting to storm the human holdouts. That so many of the robots had been destroyed in the opening attack…

Was impressive, yes. But it would take more than a lucky sneak attack to defeat the Combot Legion! And it would take more than a little growth spurt and some bombs to defeat Metal Sonic!

"Miles Prower," Metal hissed. "You will regret coming here to face me…"


	28. Crossing the Rubicon iii

Rouge checked her watch: T minus sixty three hours.

If things were going according to plan, then Tails would already be engaging the First Legion in the eastern theater. It was critical that the moderate leadership in the New Navy not only survive, but emerge victorious. This was Rouge's condition for her cooperation.

At the moment, the GUN Remnant was sharply split between the moderates and the extremists. Normally, the former held power, but with the fall of Station Square and the alliance with Mastermind, the pendulum has swung in the other direction. Moderates were being pushed out of positions of authority and replaced by dangerous extremists and political lapdogs. If the situation were allowed to continue, not only would GUN turn into a terrible an enemy as the Eggman (worse, since they were much more practical and cunning), but Rouge's friends there would be "retired."

In exchange for going along with his plans, Rouge had demanded Tails do something about the situation. Her latest intelligence indicated that most of the moderate fringe in the Navy were being sent to the frontlines with the Eggman. Even if they survived, they would be decimated as a movement. Rouge couldn't allow that to happen.

Central to bringing GUN back into the light was Aya Florentine. She was the public face of the moderate wing, and one of the most highly respected officers in the New Navy. GUN and her friends had rallied around Aya as a counterpoint to Mastermind's genocidal policies. Aya had to survive for there to be any sort of peace between humans and Mobians in the future.

So far, there was nothing on the news.

That was a good sign. It meant that Tails had knocked out communications in the area. Rouge just hoped he could pull off the rest of the plan. He had once scoffed at her implication of one man taking on an army, but it was true. She could hardly imagine how anyone could manage that without a Super form of some type.

Her part of the plan had her landing in Marble Garden: gateway to Angel Island. Pulling a traveling cloak taunt over her shoulders, she turned and waved to a small shuttle as it took off behind her. As expected, the smuggler had gotten her past Echidnapolis Security easily enough. She was on the island, and well on her way to Mushroom Hill.

Warming up a speeder, Rouge straddled the hoverbike and took off. The zones on Angel Island always seemed to start and end abruptly, and before she knew it, the checkered territory of Marble Garden gave way to the lush hills of the Mushroom Forest. While the former had been transformed by the echidna into a hub of commerce and activity, Mushroom Hill was just like Rouge remembered it: wild and untamed.

She knew from experience that much of it had been damaged during Robotnick's takeover back in the day. The madman had used incendiaries and defoliants to try and flush out Sonic and Tails, and turned most of the fantastic forest into a charred wasteland in the process. Thankfully, nature was well on her way to reclaiming what had been lost.

Redwood sized mushrooms, all a vibrant red and green, rose around her to form a canopy and jungle ecosystem like none in the world. Only the strange climactic conditions on Angel Island, and perhaps the Chaos Energy that kept it in the sky, could allow such a place to survive. Rouge raced along the convex caps of building sized toadstools, using one as a makeshift ramp to catapult over a gorge and across the surface of a bioluminescent polypore embedded in a cliffside.

Keeping one eye on the compass and another on the wilderness ahead of her, Rouge wondered how much untapped wealth lay in the Mushroom Hill Zone. She knew that the echidna were already hard at work exploring the mysterious forest for medicinal herbs and fungi, and she had heard many rumors about lucrative trades in psychoactive substances which were not yet well regulated or controlled on Angel Island. There was a lot of opportunity here, though for her part, Rouge far preferred the perfect sheen of a jewel to the spongy colors of a morel.

Eventually nearing her target location, Rouge stashed the hoverbike and continued on foot and by wing. Soon she entered the first security cordon around the Angel Island Peace Conference. For most intruders or potential troublemakers, security was tight. Even for her, it would have been a bit tricky to slip through. However, the crowds and media buzz the conference attracted had diverted and distracted more than enough security resources to leave openings she could exploit.

The ranch they were using to host the conference was sizeable: at least four large buildings, formerly homes built in the provincial echidna style, held the major parties. The actual specifics were supposed to be a secret, but Tails had provided her with his own classified information on the subject. She knew just where her target could be found.

* * *

"Is something wrong, Princess?"

Sally glanced across the table at Snively, feeling a bit disoriented. What had happened? Had she zoned out for a moment there?

The tiny human shuffled a number of documents together. "Perhaps we should continue this later? You seem fatigued, my dear."

"No, I..."

"Princess," she heard Geoffrey gently whisper from his ever vigilant post behind her. "You don't look well. These last few days have been very hard on you..."

"Perhaps... we should take a short recess?" Sally asked, the throbbing in her head getting worse.

"Of course," Snively replied for his ever silent retinue of robotic servants and bodyguards. "We can discuss the last of the Robian resettlement issues later." He smiled knowingly. "We want to set things right the first time, don't we?"

"Sally?" Prince Elias asked, from his seat at the head of the table. Opposite him, the Echidnapolis mediator also started to look worried.

"Princess?" he asked, concerned.

"I'm ok," she assured them, standing up trying to wave off their apprehension and reassure them. "I'm..."

The world began to darken, and Sally fell forward.

"Princess!"

"Sally!"

"Someone call a doctor!"

* * *

Metal found him standing atop a hill of broken and bisected mechs. It seemed as if he had simply been letting them come to him. The cobalt blue robot watched as a quartet of praying mantis type badnicks attacked from all sides. They were fast, and among the most deadly of all Eggman's badniks in close quarters. As one unit, the four of them threw their arm blades: eight deadly projectiles scythes towards their target, even as replacement arms flipped out and reattached to take the place of the ones that had been lost.

Tails spun in place, arms spread wide, the white tips of his tails flashing and catching the light. He slipped between four of the blades, and behind him, four more split in half. In moments, the mantid badniks were on him, bladed arms a blur. Metal knew from experience how Sonic would have fought: spin dashing and bouncing from one to another, or, if there was no room in close quarters, he would have jumped up to force the distance. Tails, however, weaved between the strikes, constantly spinning.

"That spinning motion..." Metal watched carefully. He was a learning robot, a constantly evolving AI. He was curious and inflective. It was what made him the most powerful and deadly of all the Doctor's creations.

With electronic eyes, he slowed down what he saw. It was all in that spinning motion. Metal saw, in that slow motion, how Tails used his namesakes to either wrap around his body or strike a target or both. The complex spinning movements allowed his tails to shield and attack from unexpected angles and directions. Metal saw how, as the boy turned, he used one tail to turn aside a strike and another to disarm a mantid badnik he had his back to. The boy then flipped the arms over his shoulder and used them to impale the robots to his left and right.

In moments, one enemy was disarmed, two were destroyed, and another was sliced in half at the waist. A final sweeping motion bisected the last remaining badnik. It fell, sparking, into a crumpled heap along with an unknown number of its comrades. A tiny Flicky bird managed to work its way out of the robot's remains, still sticky with stasis gel. It hopped for a few paces and then took flight.

Metal's burning red eyes betrayed no emotion.

'Strong. The boy is strong.'

Metal Sonic walked, now, slowly. Sunlight streaked across his polished surface and scattered off sharp edges that mocked the quills of the real Sonic Hedgehog. Yes: this little fox had become quite strong. The hundred or so slashed and ruined remains of Combots and other robots at his feet were proof enough of that.

"It's been a while, Metal," Tails said, also walking towards his opponent slowly, finally descending down the hill of broken badniks. "I've read a little about your new power plant. Is it true Doctor Eggman switched you to a 3:50 input from a 4:40? I must admit, I'm eager to see it in action."

"Mr. Prower," Metal spoke, voice dry and artificial. "I could say the same for you and your recent improvements. I regret we weren't able to meet in Westopolis last year. I would have liked to be the one who killed you friends in front of you."

"Yes, well Shadow beat you to it." Tails shrugged. "But I know you're disappointed that I'm here, and not Sonic."

"Robots do not lie," Metal admitted. "I would prefer a showdown with him. My goal is to see him broken before me. It is why I exist. In a way, it is a shame we do not have a Metal Tails. Then you would have a more appropriate opponent."

Tails just smirked.

"Did I say something amusing?" Metal asked, curious.

"You don't understand," the kitsune replied. "You're a more appropriate opponent than you realize. You've always been a good match for Sonic in the past, and your upgrades have kept you competitive. In fact, I'd say Sonic usually beats you due to luck and his friends more than anything else."

Metal Sonic stopped advancing, and Miles did likewise. Around them both, the tattered remains of the Combot Legion began to back away. Neither Miles nor Metal, however, gave them any heed. Both were focused entirely on each other. Finally, after a few seconds, Metal Sonic nodded, once.

"I see. To you, I am also a test as to how you would perform against the organic, original Sonic." Metal's eyes glowed and simmered. "Organics are often very complicated in their motivations. I did not predict that competition had led to animosity between the two of you."

"Let me clarify that, then… so that you will understand my organic motivations better." Miles pointed and twirled his finger. "It is not animosity that drives me to want to be test myself against him or to use you as a proxy for that. I'm not trying to surpass Sonic, and I have no interest in beating him or even competing with him. I want to push my limits and see what I'm capable of. My only real measuring stick is myself!"

"No matter how powerful you become, or how experienced you are," Metal replied. "But you are still just a bag of meat and bones."

The cobalt robot's chest intake began to warm up, humming softly.

"You still bleed. You still die." Metal's body began to glow with power and crackle with electricity as his internal generator cycled up. The large turbine engine in the center of his body slowly began to turn, and titanium interlocks spread in front of the intake to keep it clear of large debris. Spreading his arms, Metal Sonic's feet began to lift off the ground.

"Quite right." Miles' tails began to spin, and a blast of wind flew out from under him. "I am still mortal. I can still die. But I won't. Not today."

They shot forward in the same instant, passing in a quarter heartbeat, before turning and circling each other. In turn, each leaned his body forward, becoming more aerodynamic and increasing in speed. The rest of the world became a senseless blur of speed lines and uneven forms, coming and going in the time it takes to bat an eye. The rain of dirt and dust, kicked up by their passing, fell all around them in slow motion, but this strange state was like a second home to both individuals and neither hesitated.

Without warning or signal, both suddenly turned into sharp left turns, gaining distance from each other. One second, and well over a hundred paces later, two clouds of dust kicked up as Miles and Metal abruptly kicked into the ground, spun, and accelerated into a collision course. Watching his opponent, Tails couldn't help but smirk. This Metal Sonic… he had run from him many times before, leaving it to Sonic to handle the robot duplicate. Now it was his turn! His time to prove his worth! Here was an enemy Sonic had defeated before, albeit with difficulty. Destroying him was just the first step…

Racing towards Miles, Metal calculated his approach and that of his opponent. After a second, the two passed the point of no return – the mathematical limit where neither could avoid the other. Collision was, indeed, imminent. His memory banks brought up a correlation with the past, and compared this target with his primary one: Sonic the Hedgehog. Tails had always been fast, but never as aggressive as his mentor. This was certainly no longer the case. The not-so-little fox was also fast… faster than his record indicated, but still within projected speeds as a result of his growth. Metal felt confident that, if need be, he could speed-blitz the young kitsune.

The two hit with the roar of a derailed train.

From the area, a shockwave danced along the ground, uprooting sparse grasses and bits of soil. Sparks flew from Metal's shield as it locked forces with one of Miles' tails, ripples of strain flowing across the normally translucent energy field. The two seemed locked in position, before the kitsune's attack cut along the shield and the fighters passed each other again. Completing the pass, Metal double-checked what his sensors had dutifully reported.

That collision had been…

Metal's face couldn't frown, but if he were organic, then he knew he would be. The collision had damaged his shield. Its reserves were able to quickly repair the damage, but the fact that it had nearly been breached… how had so much energy been applied to it? Racing across the ground, passing through a staggered line of Combos, Metal scattered them like leaves. He didn't even have to see with his optics to know that Tails was right behind him.

Sonic wouldn't have been able to damage his shield in just one blow like that.

Not his new, improved shield.

One tail... did just one tail have a piercing power exceeding that of even a standard homing attack? It was true that the speed of the boy's tails, in terms of rotation or even striking, did exceed that of a typical spin attack. The boy could use his tails like that constantly. No wonder the force involved was able to crack his new shield! Luckily, the brat wasn't able to easily strike with both of the appendages and they had a limited range.

Cutting and reversing his engines, Metal skidded for only a few feet before heading in the opposite direction. Turning to his side and pivoting his body, he slammed into Tails, surprising the fox with the sudden move. Unprepared, Metal's shield slammed into the kitsune's body, and coupled with the boy's already high speed, knocked the wind out of him. Or so it seemed. The fox quickly recovered from being plastered against the solid energy shield to smirking.

Rearing back one hand, Miles flattened his palm. A golden nimbus of energy coalesced between his fingers, resolving into a ring. For a half second, it appeared to be a power ring... but then a second smaller ring came into being within the first one. Metal's optics recorded it with surprise.

'A ring within a ring?'

And then Tails thrust it into the shield.

At first, it seemed repulsed, but then a distinct golden glow began to interface with the shield, and one after another, the kitsune's fingers began to break through. Metal felt his body begin to vibrate. It took only a moment for him to process what was occurring.

'High frequency vibration!' Metal realized.

The boy was channeling energy into the shield, causing it to resonate at over 200,000 hertz. That alone would be within the shield tolerances, except that the energy wasn't dissipating. It was flowing around the shield and back to its point of origin and then doubling every half second. It was also causing a reciprocal vibration within his shield capacitors. If it reached more than a million hertz, Metal knew his more sensitive hardware - his shields, his optics, and his processors - would start to shear apart.

Desperate, Metal focused reserve power into the shield while powering down the capacitors, and golden crackles played with blue as the two forces pushed against each other. Then Metal's internal sensors told him that the inevitable had happened: he had exhausted his reserve supply of shield energy. Cutting through the remaining energy shield, the fox's flattened palm curled into a fist. Reacting as fast as his processors could, Metal cut his engines, spread his arms, and slowed his momentum just enough to miss the blow. He spun out of the exchange, but managed to land on his feet, cutting long furrows in the Mobian soil.

He turned, and saw Tails pulling his fist out of a small crater in the ground.

"Quick thinking…!" The fox looked over his shoulder. "You deduced that I was using a sympathetic oscillation to overload your internal systems, so you shut them down and switched to an isolated power supply, breaking the feedback loop. I guess I'm not surprised."

Metal didn't respond.

He simply raised his hands and pointed them at the kitsune. Small cylinders popped out of their slots and fired, twin laser beams raking the ground where Tails had been. Metal tracked the fox's movement as he ran, cutting burning streaks in the ground just behind him. The robot kept firing, even as Tails rolled behind the cover of a fallen Caterkiller assault mech, which promptly got cut in half a second before the unused ordinance inside the vehicle exploded, spraying fire everywhere. Still, Metal Sonic fired, following the boy's erratic movements as he jumped and cart wheeled over a parked Mobian air-truck, and then back flipped high into the air. Hissing in programmed anger, Metal kept firing wildly, destroying anything that passed behind the dodging kitsune.

"You can not avoid my blasts forever," Metal said, calmly, as Miles rolled behind another upturned assault badnik. Metal's lasers sliced into this one, as it had the once before, but instead of an explosion, and instead of Miles running out past the other end, it suddenly surged forward and flipped into the air. Calculating its trajectory, Metal instantly knew it was headed right for him. Attacking it with his beams, the tortured robot broke apart, but in the second and a half the distraction had brought…

The boy had disappeared.

Metal turned his head just fast enough to see a tawny orange blur slam into him. For a second time, Metal's protective shield flared under the brunt of a chaos energy powered vibration attack. This time, Metal lashed out instantly, abruptly shutting off his shield and attacking: clawed hands slashing at where the boy had been. Tails flipped overhead, fingers no longer having purchase on a shield. Instead, he twirled, and Metal juked and dodged to avoid a pair of slashing tails.

He skidded to a stop and lined up his lasers to take another shot with the ground below his feet erupted. With his shield still down, Metal took the brunt of the explosion and tumbled through the air. Damage reports flooded his processors as another explosion, and then another, went off nearby, deforming titanium and steel. Finally, his shield winked back on and he hit the ground, feet punching deeply into the scorched and blasted soil.

"What had...?" Metal looked up and saw a pair of silver objects curving through the air. Both promptly exploded in light and fury.

Bombs!

For a third time, Metal's shield came under attack, and for a second time, he was forced to drop his most potent defense or face the risk of tearing his insides apart. Tails was behind him this time; Metal turned and deflected a razor edged tail with the diamond hard blades on his fingers. A spray of sparks filled the air as he blocked another bladed strike and then another. Metal's right foot dug deep into the ground as both hands blocked a powerful downward stroke.

Grooves sliced open along the robot's forearms.

'I need to get some distance,' Metal calculated. 'With my shield more a liability than a strength, I need to keep outside the range of his tails...'

Then, the attacking Mobian gabbed hold of Metal's left arm, pulled it up and ducked low, and jerked it back. With a hiss of broken hydraulics, and popped metal bearings, Metal heard his arm break at the shoulder socket, and then at the elbow, and then deform at the shoulder itself, causing internal damage to his core body. Quickly activating his electro-shock systems, Metal desperately pumped as much energy as he could spare into his outer armor.

Tails opened his mouth in silent agony as his entire body convulsed. His iron grip on Metal's arm broke as the muscles in his arms and hands spasmed, just a second before Metal's external systems overloaded and exploded. The two were blown away from each other, and engulfed in a cloud of smoke and ash. For all of a few seconds, Metal experienced the organic sensation called 'blacking out.' One second, his sensors recorded him overloading his systems, and the next… he was imbedded in the ground, body smoking.

Trying to get back up, he accidentally tried to brace himself with his broken arm, and miscalculating the damage, heard it snap entirely at the elbow. Looking at the damage, and not just relying on his internal sensors, Metal saw that what was left of his arm was a twisted and useless mess. Reaching up with his good arm, he dug his steel claws into the shoulder and twisted, severing the broken husk.

It would only slow him down.

It was time to unlock _that_.

Sending an emergency burst communication to a pair of nearby E-1002 assault bots, Metal jumped back and away. He landed a good distance from the recovering kitsune, and a moment later the two E-series made a rocket assisted landed next to him. A hundred feet away, Tails got back on his feet, body still smoking from the electrical discharge. Burned fur and singed flesh ran up his right arm.

"Emergency Protocols active. Metal Sonic Phase Two unlocked," Metal announced, burying his one good hand into the E-1002 at his right side. "This is unfortunate. I had hoped to save this for Sonic..."

Within moments, the E-1002 began to fall apart, torn apart by silvery tendrils erupting out of Metal Sonic's arm. Pieces of the robot migrated from the sacrificial E-series mech into the cobalt monstrosity. Before Tails' eyes, the arm he had torn off began to rapidly regenerate and repair. Metal used his new left arm, before it was even fully recreated, to impale the other E-1002 and begin absorbing it as well.

"Oh. Oh! Oh!" Tails eyes lit up, a wide grin parting his face. "Active mimetic assimilation! I knew Eggman had been researching new methods of dynamic molecular bonding, but I never imagined! How wonderful!"

The fox laughed wildly, hands upraised in glee.

"Metal!" he pointed at the now larger robot. "Don't tell me your body has a Berserker Module?"

"Curious," Metal Sonic Phase Two remarked. Its arms were now layered in white and black armor, and two adapted power plants and engines had been grafted onto its back. "So you know what it is, then?"

"A berserker? Of course I know!" Tails was still laughing happily. "You have to understand, I don't have one yet! I was never able to get enough functional nanites to make working berserker cells of my own! And now I see there's been one in front of me all this time! Eggman is a true genius!"

"How strange." Metal intoned. "A normal Mobian would not be excited seeing this new form. Additionally, if you know what berserker cells are, then you also must know that I possess Infinite Regeneration. I can not be defeated when they are unlocked."

Tails chuckled and bashfully craned his neck to the right.

"I suppose that's mostly true, but it can't help it," he explained, glancing over at Metal with dark blue eyes. "This is just very exciting for me. I'm so excited my body is tingling...! My hair is standing on end!"

Metal Sonic's triad of engines flared up.

"Then enjoy the sensation." Holding out his hands, a flare of light began to form in front of Metal's chest. "As you die."

* * *

Shadow felt her approach some time before she actually appeared.

Staring out past the balcony railing, the black hedgehog took a deep breath of the natural jungle air. It was invigorating. Enough so that it almost made this trip worthwhile. Sadly, he could not lose himself in the natural splendor that concealed the horizon. Instead his time was wasted drumming up support for this joke of a peace conference. The last two weeks had bought enough time to get almost all of Helios' systems online, and estimates from Robotropolis had indicated maybe another week at the most. Then they could finally power up Eclipse, and Shadow could finally bring justice to the world.

Rouge dropped to the floor next to him.

Shadow's eyes wandered lazily over to her. She was wearing the same catsuit he remembered from before: an eccentric and frankly impractical mix of black and pink. The sight bring back memories of their last run in. Together, they had managed to steal one of the Chaos Emeralds that even now rested within the Eclipse Chamber. For that reason, and no other, Shadow still felt some lingering fondness for the bat girl. Of course, in the end, she would die like all life on his world... but he would make it quick and painless if it was possible.

"Shadow," she said, her tone seductive. "Surprised to see me?"

"Only a little," he drawled, not moving from his spot by the balcony. "Why are you here?"

"I missed you?"

He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at that.

"Didn't you miss me?" she asked, helping herself to a plate of grapes and sitting down nearby. "You could really be nicer to me... I have something you want, after all."

"You?" Shadow asked, as if to imply there was very little she had that could interest him. But then he realized: maybe she did. Slowly, he turned to face her.

"Chaos Emeralds. You boys sure do have a one track mind... and that's coming from a compulsive jewel thief, so you know its not a good thing," Rouge remarked, plucking a grape off its stem with pink lips. Licking a few droplets of juice off her lower lip with her tongue, she smiled seductively.

"There's that look on your face that I remember," she added. "That's what I missed about you. That looks means opportunity."

Shadow 'hmfed.'

"A look that means opportunity?" he asked. "That depends."

"On what?" Rouge asked, a bit thrown by the question.

"On whether or not I can trust you," Shadow explained, taking a few steps towards her. Rouge's confidence flagged a fraction at his approach; she hastily swallowed the seedless grape she had been sucking the juice from. With a few more steps, he placed himself behind where she sat. Turning so slowly, it was almost glacial, he gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You can trust me," she said, not flinching at the contact. "Just like before. Remember?"

"I do..." his voice was rough and menacing.

Rouge gulped.

She had assumed he would remember that outing fondly. After all, they had helped each other... he had even saved her life from a particularly cunning trap. In the end, they had won the Chaos Emerald and he had returned to his master completely contented. He didn't know she had done it on the orders of GUN, and taken the opportunity to conduct critical espionage from within. The information she had pulled together from that mission had been critical in the ongoing war, but of course no one knew about that.

No one **could** ever know.

Not even the Mobians in the Kingdom of Acorn who has benefited from the intelligence passed onto them by sympathetic GUN members. It was the nature of her profession. She was spy. No one really trusted her except her handlers and her friends, and those were few and far between.

"Hmm." Shadow's hand left her shoulder, and she let out the breath she'd been unconsciously holding. "First, tell me what you want."

"I want... to be one of the Underbosses..."

"Really?" he asked, walking back around and taking a seat in front of her. "You never seemed the type to crave power over others, Rouge. At least not that kind of power."

Underbosses, or "minibosses," were regional commanders for the Eggman Empire. Previously, they had each been unique in some way. Crocbot had run operations in Downunda, for example, whole the roboticized General D'coolette had run operations in occupied Mercia. Some Underbosses were more independent than others, and at the height of the Empire some had even been almost wholly independent entities who merely paid tribute to the Empire and played by its rules. More recently, the Underboss system had been replaced by networked communes of more reliable Tails Doll AIs.

"It isn't that I want to rule over anyone," Rouge explained, relaxing a bit. "I just want to be as free to live my life as possible. If I were an Underboss, I'd have that freedom. Relatively speaking."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Look at Snively. He's mostly free to do what he wants, isn't he? Or you. Or even the Iron Queen back when she aligned with the Empire. That's what I want. I don't have anywhere else to go... I've made too many enemies among the humans and Mobians."

Shadow considered that for a moment.

"I see," he finally decided. "And what do you know?"

"I have the exact location of Knothole's Chaos Emerald," she said. "Down to an area of three meters."

Shadow's eyes narrowed. That was valuable information and they both knew it. Knothole was less a true "Hidden City" than it was a "Stealth City." Its general location was not hard to pin down. The problem was that it had a combination city shield and cloak which made actually targeting anything within the city nearly impossible. However, if one had the location of the shield generator and the Chaos Emerald powering it... ah, but that was something else entirely!

A Chaos Emerald would also be enough to jump start Helios and the Eclipse chamber, after which the actual status of Knothole would be moot. It could be destroyed at any time once Helios was in the air. In fact, it was doubly beneficial: he knew that the Kingdom had two Chaos Emeralds. If he was able to take one from their precious city shield, then it was likely they would replace it with the other. That Emerald could then be seized as well, no matter what puny security measures they put in place to protect it.

"Interesting," Shadow replied. "How did you learn this?"

Rouge took a deep breath: this was it.

"I slept with Sonic's sidekick."

"Tails." Shadow didn't phrase it as a question, just a bland statement. Her method of information gathering didn't seem to illicit much of a response at all in the black hedgehog.

"Yes," he mused. "I suppose that makes sense. He would know where it was."

"You don't sound surprised?"

"That brat... I've run into him a few times." Shadow glanced up at the ceiling, as if in memory. "I'm well aware of his technical abilities. We believe he's the one who built that shield in the first place."

Not so much as a peep about how she got the information at all. Rouge was a bit stunned. She had expected that to be the hardest sell of the night.

"Well, it wasn't hard to hack into his files once I had the chance," she explained, though it didn't even really seem necessary. Reaching into her catsuit's chest piece, she retrieved a small data crystal containing the relevant information.

"Well, this is valuable information," Shadow held out his hand. "Encrypted I assume?"

"You know me," she slyly replied, letting him have the crystal. "I left some unencrypted tidbits in there, just to prove my point. You'll get the rest when I get my Underboss status and a nice little robot army to keep me safe."

"More?" Shadow asked, and actually smiled. "Don't tell me... you know where the last Emerald is as well?"

Rouge winked.

"A girl's gotta hold onto some secrets, right?"

Shadow's crimson eyes seemed to peer right through her.

"I'll look into this right away," he said, heading inside.

"You have any food in this place?" she called after him. "Its been a long trip, you know!"

* * *

What an interesting day it had been.

Wiping the blood off his forehead, Tails could see the jagged tear that now graced his face, right below the hairline. Pressing the back of his thumb to the wound, he sealed it shut with a quick blast of chaos energy. Today, he'd not only gotten the chance to set off some of the most impressive explosives he had ever built (oh, but Bean would've gotten all misty eyed at the sight), but he got to see a Berserker body in action, too!

Today was a very interesting day!

Metal Sonic hovered in the distance, partly obscured by howling clouds of dust. A glowing orb pulsed in front of his chest; a flash of light and a second later, a magnificent blue beam lanced out, blowing apart the ground where Tails had stood just a moment before. The beam then swung, burning and kicking up debris as it followed the kitsune's movements.

"Charged particle beam; output between eight and nine gigajoules. It seems to be using a warped electromagnetic bubble as the projection point... Ok! Got it!"

Holding out his hands, Tails cupped them together and concentrated. Like his peers, he was capable of absorbing and internalizing large amount of chaos energy, via rings or other sources, like Chaos Emeralds. Unlike his peers, he had developed the control to exude chaos energy as well. The technology built into his gloves allowed a measure of control and refinement, making it easier to shape and control the Chaos Effect. In effect, each one of his gloves was a micro-manufacturing facility.

By releasing chaos energy into the circuitry, he was able to create new "power rings" with unique effects. At first, he had simply learned to use this process to manufacture his own Energy Shielding: bubble shields, fire shields, lightning shields. Then had had worked out the secrets to making "pure" bubble shields and invincibility shields. In that respect, he was simply catching up to the Eggman and his grandfather, Gerald, who had already done research into this field.

Yes: that was it.

About one hundred rings would do.

Jumping up and presenting an easy target, Tails held out his hands. Predictably, Metal zeroed in on him, and fired. This time, Miles made no attempt to dodge. Instead, the beam of light hit him head on, but rather than punching through his body and tearing him apart, it hit a concave shield several inches from the fox's hands. The shield bubble glowed white hot, but before it could be overwhelmed, Metal staggered, engulfed in a blast of white and blue fire.

The kitsune landed on his feet, tails spinning lazily to slow his descent and keep him stable. Starting to run towards where Metal fell, Tails saw the robot getting back on its feet. Wisely, it didn't try and power up another blast.

The problem with a charged particle beam was that the ionization stream could work both ways. It was like a tether between two masses. All that was required was to send an electrical discharge down the stream of ionized particles and back into the columniation chamber. In this case there was no reinforced chamber, only an easily overloaded magnetic field. Tails' shield had blocked half the beam, and let the other half explode right in Metal's face.

Metal Sonic's engines roared, and he took off.

Tails leaned forward, his tails spinning behind him. Crackles of chaos energy rippled along their length, creating a spinning vortex behind him as he accelerated. Jumping and picking up speed, he slammed into Metal Sonic in midair. The latter's engines howled, pushing them in one direction even as the kitsune's tails pushed them in another. The two corkscrewed wildly through the air, blasting from one place to the next at over two hundred miles per hour before abruptly changing vector.

Finally, inevitably, they slammed back to earth and right into a recovering formation of Combots. Spinning even as they fought, twin tails and burning exhaust mauled nearby robots and tore them to pieces. None dared to fire their weapons, not with both Metal Sonic and his target so closely entwined. The two finally crashed, at top speed, into the body of a half damaged artillery-type Caterkiller. The mech all but ripped in half from the impact; the tail section launched right up into the air and the multi-ton artillery barrel apparatus on the top crashed fifty feet away, flattening two E-series snipers.

A second later, an explosion gutted what was left of the mech entirely.

Tails landed on top of a barely functional Combot, one damaged by the initial semi-nuclear blasts, crushing its head beneath his feet. Spitting a wad of blood, and sparing a look at the burn that now ran down his left arm, he cocked his head. A silver ring shaped disk collected in the palm of his right hand, and almost casually he tossed it at the still burning Caterkiller wreckage. A moment later, another thunderous explosion leveled the area.

"Awesome!" he said, eyes wide and alight with excitement. "You had time to assimilate that, even before the explosion went off?"

Metal stepped out of the smoke, sporting one of the Caterkiller's secondary artillery armaments: a twenty millimeter autocannon. The thing had to be almost twice Metal's already increased mass. The mimetic mecha took a few more steps, planting his feet firmly in place, even as his left arm began to morph into a new weapons system. Tails' grin grew even wider as he watched the berserker cells at work.

It was just so damn fascinating!

Braces emerged around Metal's legs, rooting him in position. Silvery threads assembled twin tesla coils behind his shoulders, and a new shield blinked into place in front of the cobalt robot. Within seconds, he was ready. Missiles erupted from what had once been his left arm, while explosive anti-personnel and incendiary autocannon fire saturated the battlefield.

Tails backflipped back behind a pile of rubble, sped behind a line of Combots (that promptly got shredded in the crossfire), and then disappeared behind a trail of burning oil. Metal wasn't fooled. Looking straight up, he saw the fox descending from above, hands a blur as they released one silvery ring after another. Metal turned his weapons up, and opened fire.

A long fiery trail of explosions formed a pillar a hundred feet high.

When the smoke cleared, a bloody and bruised kitsune stood over Metal, pinning him to the ground with his feet. The shredded remains of his adapted missile launcher arm and autocannon attachment lay beneath Miles' tails. The fox was grinning. Metal's eyes flared in amusement.

Two half complete arms erupted out of the sides of Metal's torso.

Tails held out his hands, chaos energy congealing to form another device. In his right hand, golden rings formed around the base of his fingers, followed by another golden ring in the palm. Silvery circuitry melded into the seamless gold, and two cylindrical nubs manufactured themselves in the back of his palm.

"You can thank that bastard for this idea," Tails said, pointing his palm down. "Chaos Spear; One Hundred Rings!"

Metal Sonic's optics were blinded by light.

* * *

"Yes, sir. As you wish."

Rouge tried not to listen in on the conversation. The entire plan merely rested on Shadow going after Knothole's Chaos Emerald. No big, right?

Instead, she tried to distract herself by watching Shadow's unused television. The echidna were lucky enough to have a variety of commercial stations running actual content. All she every got in Knothole was the usual propaganda broadcasts over the radio. If she had to hear "For Source and Country" one more time, she'd seriously have to puke. As far as she was concerned, the Source was just a mudhole that had gotten blown up a few years back, and the less said about the King and his illustrious royal family the better.

Eventually she found a suitably amusing "talking heads" show discussing the peace conference. On one side was the merciless warmonger and on the other the spineless pacifist. Definitely good television! She checked the menu, while watching, to see what else was on.

"Oh! A special on the Robotnik family. And a 'Making of' show about Tami-La's new movie 'Broken Battery!'"

Shadow's usually gloomy self quickly intruded on the potential amusement. At least there wasn't any "breaking news" about a half dozen nuclear explosions going off anywhere earlier in the day. No news at all about the Eggman/Overlander front, in fact.

"Well?" she asked, pointedly not taking her eyes off the TV.

"I am going to check out this Emerald..."

"Good, good! Good luck and have fun...!" Rouge waved him away.

He frowned at her childish behavior, put somewhat at ease.

"You." He pointed at her. "Are coming with me. The Doctor wants to be sure we retrieve it, and that you aren't trying to... 'pull a fast one' as he says. If you are, I'm to kill you on the spot."

...

"Wow. Really? On the spot?" she asked, flipping through channels. "Even if I'm holding you over a pit of spikes... spikes that are coming out a pool of acid? Also the acid is on fire?"

"I'd probably wait a minute in that case," Shadow deadpanned. "Now come along."

Inwardly, Rouge winced. She wasn't really supposed to go with him!

She slowly got up and saw him standing in the center of the room. He had his arms crossed and a look of profound impatience written all over his face and posture. There was no doubt he was anxious to get going and collect the Emerald. No surprise there.

"Just can't wait to head out, huh?"

Shadow nodded. "I've been waiting a long time to get back that **damn** fourth Chaos Emerald!"

"Bitter much?" she asked, standing next to him. "Hey, don't you need a Chaos Emerald to teleport?"

He held out his hand, and the topaz colored Chaos Emeralds appeared in a wink of light. Rouge was genuinely amazed. Has he learned some form of remote chaos control? She had been expecting him to be carrying one of the emeralds with him. Or maybe it was just some trick?

"Remote chaos control?" she guessed.

"Very astute," he confirmed, comfortable enough with her that he even elaborated: "This way, I can keep the Emeralds in Robotropolis, where they're safest. I call this ability 'Chaos Recall.' Once I have synchronized my Chaos Energy with that of an Emerald, I can recall it to myself at any time."

Shadow wouldn't waste any further time explaining, Rouge knew. They would head out as soon as possible.

"I gotta say," she felt the need to voice a legitimate concern. "I'm not keen on going back to Knothole and getting shot at."

"I won't let you die," he said in what was probably supposed to be a comforting gesture. It might actually have been just that... if he hasn't said he planned to kill her if she had betrayed his trust (which she had) just a minute earlier. Still, there was no going back now.

"Spread your wings," he warned her, holding out the Emerald. "I'm going to be Chaos Controlling roughly two thousand feet above sea level to make sure we don't teleport into any obstacles."

* * *

Metal didn't understand.

It shouldn't have been this difficult to defeat Sonic's sidekick. Estimates as to the boy's abilities were highly inaccurate. The only intelligence failure this great that Metal could remember was how Amy Rose's hammer had been misclassified as "primarily iron composition" rather than "big god damn _magical_ hammer of smiting." Everything about this brat had been off.

His baseline speed was above what records indicated from the Westopolis confrontation, and his tail-speed (foolishly undocumented at all) was far worse. His strength was also higher than estimates had placed it. Those factors by themselves would have been troublesome but not dangerous. However, Metal had absolutely no data on these new inventions and chaos energy abilities.

Metal's sensors narrowed in on the boy's gloves. At first, the robot had thought the technology to be similar to either Overlander or Dark Legion "technomagic." that assessment may have been premature. In the former case, there was no actual chaos energy manipulation involved. In the latter, there was actually very little technology involved. This... this seemed more like fighting another chaos energy using robot, except one with a seemingly inexhaustible organic battery.

The boy used Chaos energy to power a device that had an effect, but the chaos energy itself was rarely a factor in that effect. Metal had seen a variety of shields being formed, numerous high explosives, decoys, and some sort of ring-powered energy beam. A form of 'Chaos Spear' - Metal had records and recordings of Shadow's move, but the boy's wasn't quite the same. Shadow's Chaos Spear used raw chaos energy. Tails' copy used processed energy, collected and fired with a cybernetic apparatus. Practically, this meant Shadow's attack was more powerful and easy to use, while the brat's was more versatile and easy to control, like a shotgun versus a sniper rifle.

Metal felt his newest body begin to fall apart.

It was too damaged to continue. Shedding the broken bits and repairing his core systems, the ultramarine robot fell forward onto his knees. Bits and pieces of other assimilated robots fell from his body, like flaking chips of paint. A couple feet away, Tails stumbled forward, clutching his wounded side. A stream of red ran down his waist and along his left leg.

The kitsune was breathing in gasps, but still standing.

"Damn," Metal cursed, electronic anger beginning to get the best of him. "Damnit! To have pushed me this far... a mere foxboy like you!"

"Hey! Foxboy?" Tails grumbled. "That's insulting!"

Metal glared at the aggravating organic.

Standing back up, the cobalt robot's body began to shake. With as hiss, chunks of blue armor fell from the arms, the legs, and finally the torso. Beneath that, roiling tendrils of silvers twisted like snakes over a metal skeleton. Metal's face twisted, and a ragged mouth ripped open on a previously featureless metallic surface.

"Survival Protocol Omega is now in effect. Berserker Limit Permissions expired." Metal's body began to grow as the tendrils whipped around in a frenzy, latching onto anything in range. "Metal Sonic... Phase Three... unlocked!"

"Die!" Joined metal plates rose up around the one time hedgehog facsimile. "Die!" In moments, he was encased completely in a shell of solid steel. "DIE!" Only to erupt a moment later as a mass of blue and silver tentacles.

"**DIE**!"

In seconds, the every expanding mass of tentacles and metal had swept up tons of debris from all around the battlefield. Bits and pieces of Combot, arms and legs and torsos from E-series bots, chunks of badniks and the frozen faces of Robians, all began to merge into a single nightmarish amalgamation.

A hideous dragon-like mouth with teeth of jagged armor torn from a dozen enemies roared, howling as more and more matter joined the maelstrom. Crackles of lightning and static electricity ran across the ever expanding form. Bladed wings and a dozen waving tentacles formed out of a mass of discolored blue and gray.

Tails whistled appreciatively.

"So, Eggman did program a few restrictions into your berserker cells...!" he speculated, looking up at the still expanding Metal Monstrosity. "Is this supposed to be your new equivalent of a 'Super Form?'"

The now forty foot long face of Metal Sonic glared down at him, bits of debris falling from its freshly formed rows of teeth.

"None can match me in this body!" The creature rumbled, with a voice like a dozen jet engines. "I am beyond Sonic. Beyond you. Beyond flesh and blood! Now. DIE!"

A bus sized hand descended, studded in spiraling drills and razor edged steel. It slammed into Tails like a meteor, but met no resistance as it crushed him into the dirt. There was no spray of blood; no satisfying crunch; no scream of pain. Metal swung his head around, looking for the real brat. This wasn't the first decoy the boy had used.

A flash of orange moved, trying to get behind Metal's back. His wings flexed, and two dozen bladed missiles rained down, shattering the ground and burning a trail a half mile long. Metal then swept his tail through the fires for good measure, but hit nothing of substance. Shifting his bulk, he scanned the area. Radar and Sonar were both useless: the damned kitsune seemed to be scrambling both with one of his accursed shields. That left only his Mark One Optics.

Again, the boy appeared, speeding along just outside striking range.

This time, Metal opened his mouth and unleashed something new. A focused sonic burst with a wide cone shaped area of effect. This time he got the satisfaction of a solid hit. Tails took the blast and careened along the ground, rolling before coming to a crashing halt against the rim of a crater. Metal unleashed a second blast, but Tails slipped over the edge of the crater and out of sight.

"Damn," the Metal behemoth rumbled, craning its long neck to try and get a better look. A moment later, and the cursed brat was gone.

"Where are you, boy?" Metal roared. "Don't tell me you're running from me?"

"Running is as legitimate a tactic as any."

Metal turned, and found the boy standing atop some sort of flying board. Metal's memory banks quickly provided the relevant information. It was a GEAR: a form of hoverboard used in extreme sports. What was it doing here? There were no workable roads in the area. A closer look confirmed unusual additions to the board. Metal's smart AI quickly calculated the probability was high that it was some sort of flight pack, though he wasn't equipped to determine out how it worked.

"But in this case, no, I'm not running," Tails explained. "I just needed to finish scanning you."

"Scanning me?" Metal bellowed. "Was that what you were doing, zipping around like a bug?"

"I'm well aware of what berserker cells are and what they are capable of," the fox continued, seemingly unperturbed. "What was most surprising was that Eggman placed nominal limitations on your assimilation ability before this. Tell me: are you aware of all the material you've absorbed into yourself?"

Metal stared down at the tiny little creature.

"Probably not," Tails guessed, not needing to hear a reply. A single golden ring appeared in the palm of his hand. "I mean, you just went around grabbing anything in sight like Sonic at a chilidog cook off. You should have been more careful. "

Metal finally began to realize just what the boy was implying.

"You...!"

And why the brat was carefully flying a safe distance off the ground.

Tails pointed downward.

"One Ring."

The golden ring sunk into the ground, and instantly a massive lightning shield sprung into being. Its activation triggered another, and another, and another, and another, all around Metal's Phase Three form. It then began to trigger lightning traps within his body, shielded and inadvertently absorbed in his haste to transform. Metal screamed soundlessly, even his audio functions burning out. Only the creaking and warping of metal and the burning stink of fried circuitry filled the air.

"It took me roughly six minutes to determine the composition and operation of your berserker cells, and the nature of your 'infinite regeneration.' It took me less than five minutes to devise a countermeasure to those abilities," Tails explained, cocking his head to the side as he watched Metal unravel. "The fact is, that I'm not a good match up for someone like you. Any machine I understand, I can take apart. Anything I can take apart, I can copy. You are no exception."

Metal's jaw corroded and fell off, followed by blue plates of armor.

"While you were busy eating your surroundings, I was busy pirating your technology," Tails concluded. "My bootleg nanites aren't very original, but then again, they don't need to be. Sorry. But _this_ is the end."

Metal Sonic's monstrous form fell apart, bit by bit. His berserker cells were hit simultaneously, individually unable to cope with the damage to their area around them, and ultimately, the damage to themselves. When they died, Metal's vital systems shut down, and his assimilated components broke off, rejected. The vast mass of machinery ultimately collapsed: one arm fell off as a whole piece, another broke apart piecemeal. The great bladed wings fell to the ground, cutting deeply enough into the blast caked soil to remain upright, like a two story tall wall.

Finally, Tails hopped off his GEAR and began walking towards the still smoking remains. Stepping carefully over a burning piece of engine, and a half assimilated, half whole Robian, he kneeled and reached down, finding something worth salvaging. He came back up holding Metal's severed head, now back to its original size. Brushing off bits and pieces of blasted steel, the kitsune fox stared into the now dull red eyes.

"I can understand your need to beat Sonic, you know," he told the inactive and unresponsive head. Miles knew his words were wasted, but said them anyway.

It felt right.

"Believe me, I _really do_ understand. But neither of us can ever replace Sonic no matter how hard we try and no matter what we do to ourselves." Tails closed his eyes, letting that statement sink in. It had been one of the hardest lessons he had ever learned. "If you had realized that and accepted what you actually were, rather than mimicking someone else, you could have defeated Sonic years ago. But don't worry... I'm going to give you another chance to make a difference with your life. Including another shot at a certain someone."

Tails smiled at the decapitated head.

"You may even thank me later."


	29. Crossing the Rubicon iv

Snively waited in the cyberspace of the Eggnet for his master to reply.

"This is no doing of yours?" the Eggman asked.

The two stood in a featureless grid. Four giant spheres slowly orbited them high above. Here, in the Eggnet, their digital avatars were simply themselves. There was no point in pretense, and none of the other Underbosses were present except for a few cadres of Tails Dolls, represented by featureless numbered blocks. Snively rather missed the days when the Eggnet hummed with activity, like in the Empire's heyday. Above all else, he missed Regina... but that was then; this was now.

"No, sir," Snively replied. "A coincidence?"

"The Princess has always been a hardy one. It is hard to imagine her coming down with something and you feeling fit as a fiddle..." The good doctor chuckled at his nephew's expense. Snively bit back a retort about certain overweight men not looking much healthier.

"Something she ate, then?" Snively shrugged, not really caring anymore. "Either way, it isn't my doing. I do have a neurotoxin prepared for the end of the conference, the binary one we discussed, but I never got around to introducing either of the compounds yet."

"Hmm." Robotnik rubbed his chin and absently walked off to the side in a shallow circuit.

"Sir?"

"It may be worth thawing the R-71 out a little early, Snively. I've sent Shadow to Knothole."

The tiny man's eyebrows raised at that. "But why? Won't that cause us trouble?"

Eggman nodded in agreement. "Yes, but some new information had come to my attention. All of it has checked out so far."

"New information?"

"Most of it is little stuff... nothing of consequence. But there were some schematics on the Knothole shield and the location of the Amethyst Chaos Emerald. If it pans out, we'll be able to get Helios off the ground in a few hours."

Snively thought about that: it was good news. But...

"What if its a trick? You know how that black rat works! He'll leave a trail of bodies in his wake! It'll make this whole conference implode."

Eggman pointed up at the sky as he replied, "That's exactly right. But the latest reports from the East are very promising. This little conference has already given us enough time to push back those GUN Remnants and rebuild most of the damage we've suffered over the last two months. Even in a worst case scenario, we'll be able to get Helios up and running in four days. With GUN in full retreat, holding off those Mobians for less than a week will be child's play."

"If you think so, sir," Snively said, not entirely convinced himself. But he had always been more caution-minded than his benefactor and uncle. "So, I should release the toxin at the first opportunity?"

Eggman nodded as he paced, clearly still thinking over the situation.

"That... will be a little harder now," Snively added, with a hint of trepidation. "The Princess isn't making any public appearances due to her condition, and I don't think I can get anyone near her as long as she's in seclusion. The Prince is spending his time near her as well. Its... its an unfortunate coincidence."

"Do what you can, Snively. If the opportunity slips by... well, its a shame, but these things happen. More importantly," he said, turning to gesture at the little man. "If Shadow returns with an Emerald, I want you to make your exit as quickly as possible. Return to Robotropolis. I'll need you by my side once Helios activates."

"As you say, sir," Robotnik's right hand man crisply replied. "I will make preparations immediately and await further orders."

Snively's avatar bowed and faded into a few lingering megabytes of data as he logged off. When he was gone, that data compacted and archived itself, slipping into the web of information that had been at their feet. Eggman remained longer, still carefully considering the situation.

"Network: load real time map of the Egg Armada, and last known telemetry from the Egg Carrier."

Immediately, two displays formed to his left and right, floating in the air.

The one on the left showed the ongoing running battle between the Armada and the so called 'New Navy' the humans had cobbled together. The latter was making a long strategic withdrawal across the eastern plains of Mobius Major, hundreds of miles from Robotropolis itself. Progress was good on that front.

Things were going less smoothly around the Egg Carrier. The Eggnet communications satellite had been knocked out a short time ago and seismic sensors indicated that the humans had likely resorted to using tactical nuclear weapons. Probably some old N2 Mines from back in the Black Arms War. Hopefully, the Egg Carrier itself wasn't too badly damaged.

That cursed blue hedgehog and his annoying sidekick had managed to knock the great airship out of the sky months ago, much to Robotnick's disgust and rage. While a relatively small investment in resources compared to the Helios project, the Egg Carrier had been the flagship of the Armada and a fine craft. Unfortunately, like all his earlier airships, it had proven vulnerable to direct assault by super powered rodents. First the Wing Fortress, then the Flying Battery, then the Egg Carrier. It was a depressing track record. Helios, thankfully, would correct that vulnerability once and for all.

Still: the ship wasn't badly damaged. It could easily be patched up once that area was secure. Metal had plenty of time and resources to finish repatriating it. Eggman was confident it would be back in the air and flying alongside Helios and the Armada by the end of the week at the most. He keyed up another display, and noted that the satellite he'd moved to cover the battlefield wasn't there yet.

"Another hour or so," he murmured.

Seventy three minutes and five seconds, actually.

Filing that window away for later with two fingers, he focused on another satellite view of the area where Knothole was suspected to be. As always, it was impossible to tell much of anything with the city's cloaking field operational. But, if Shadow's information was correct, then that shield would be coming down very shortly. It wasn't something he'd be able to see in person, but watching Knothole finally expose itself to the world via satellite was just as good.

It would be something to remember when he burned the city to the ground.

* * *

They appeared over a thousand feet in the air, for what felt like the tenth time. Like every other time, Rouge flexed her wings to keep from free falling. Shadow merely hovered in place, his rocket assisted shoes keeping him in place. Rouge had been a passenger in Chaos Control mediated teleportation before, and never found it a particularly amusing experience. It wasn't painful, but it was immensely disorienting given how abruptly Shadow used it.

Below them, the think forest canopy took on a distinctly metallic sheen.

"There!" she pointed, straight down. They were so close to the City Shield that they could see the imperfections in the illusion. By her estimate, they were perhaps a hundred feet from its surface... a surface they did not want to interact with physically.

"Hold on," Shadow helpfully provided some bare modicum of warning. "I'm moving us half the distance to ground level."

Rouge quickly grabbed his arm, and a second later they warped down beneath the shield. They appeared directly over a busy intersection. A dozen faces turned to stare up at the spectacle of the two Mobians hovering in midair. Shadow paid them about as much heed as one would at being gawked at by ants. He slowly looked around, getting a bearing on his location.

He warped again, without warning this time, taking Rouge along for the ride. This time he free fell to the floor. Ahead of them loomed a fortified security complex. Holding the topaz Chaos Emerald in one hand, Shadow took in the layout and the area. He also took bland notice of the hundred or so armed guards who all but surrounded them.

A whole platoon of them even happened to be standing nearby.

For a few long seconds, everyone stared. Then one of them recognized Shadow, recognized the situation, and pulled his sidearm.

"Freeze!" the mobian's lone voice broke the silence.

In moments, dozens of other guards were reaching for their weapons.

Rouge cursed to herself, and jumped for cover to try and present a harder target. Tails had warned her about this, in case she did get dragged along. There were no plans to make this look easy. Luckily, no one seemed to pay her much mind.

Shadow was already moving, already fighting, and already tearing people apart. He moved like a black flash or a ghost, and in his wake he left broken bodies. He was already aglow with his Emerald's Chaos Energy, dyed a deep black, and there were only a handful of individuals who could stand up to him in that state.

Automated guns opened fire on the courtyard from weapons emplacements built into the bunker and drone fighters, of the type launched by air carriers, began to fill the air. Rouge wisely snuck out of sight, quietly incapacitating a guard before he could either alert others to her presence or get himself killed by Shadow. She watched from there as the "ultimate life form" methodically tore through the Knothole Shield Defenses: first the guards, then he took to the air and blasted from drone to drone, hitting them even when they maneuvered at high speed.

Bits and pieces rained down all around the now empty courtyard.

Rouge could hear sirens in the background, and then other alarms. Subtlety was not one of Shadow's strong points. The first on the scene happened to be a van full of city guards. A black beam, almost casually delivered, turned the vehicle into a burning wreck before a single man or woman could exit it. By the time Shadow was done tearing apart the bunker defense turrets, a more cautious cordon of local guards and other military types had assembled just outside the courtyard walls.

Shadow, by now all but engulfed in a helix of dark chaos energy, walked right up to the bunker's blast doors. Slamming first one fist, and then the other, into the reinforced door, all that accumulated dark energy seemed to flare all at once. The walls around the door cracked and shattered, and with a heave the blast doors fell forward. Shadow blinked out of the way, and Rouge shielded her face as the resulting crash kicked up a cloud of pulverized concrete.

"I'd forgotten... just how insanely strong this guy was!" she thought, and saw him beckoning her to follow. She was tempted to run for it the moment he turned his back, but didn't dare take the chance. Not after seeing him do what he had just done.

They started down a long incline, a ramp of some sort, when another pair of weapons emplacements emerged from the sides of the walls. Long licks of flame emerged from the previously recessed turrets like reams of water from a fountain. Rouge turned just in time to see a force field light up behind them. Almost immediately, the room became choked with fumes.

"The force field hermetically sealed the corridor!" she realized, reaching into one of the concealed pockets in her catsuit. "The fire's sucking up all the oxygen!"

At least she was prepared for this. Fitting a lightweight O2 mask over her face, she saw Shadow shielding his body from the fire. The black hedgehog was looking around for a way to disable the trap before simply trying to blow everything up. Rouge wondered for a moment just what he'd actually do to escape... but then, there was always the possibility he could make use of a short ranged Chaos Control.

Leaving her inside.

"Shadow!" she called to him, holding up a small sphere. "EMP!"

He nodded quickly. "Hurry."

Rolling the little bomb down the incline, it exploded a second later, fizzling the force field behind the flame throwers. The turrets themselves didn't seem otherwise affected. Shadow noticed this immediately, and grabbed hold of her waist before running right into the burning conflagration. She felt them behind to spin, the hot licks of fire just barely singeing them before they were through.

Both fell forward onto their knees and looked back: the force field was back up, and the entire room was little more than an inferno. A few seconds later, as if sensing the trap no longer had anyone left to kill, it shut down. The flame turrets retracted with a muffled thump, and the force fields powered down.

Shadow dusted off his arms, staring down what was left of the ramp.

"Rouge. If we find a security terminal, can you shut down these traps?"

"I think so. If we find one."

"Good," he said, resuming a quick pace as they continued deeper into the complex. Moments into their descend, they began to hear alarm claxons and flashing red lights.

"Warning. Warning. Intruder Alert. Class Four Counterinsurgency Protocols are in Effect. Non Combat Personnel are to Report Immediately to Designated Panic Rooms. Warning. Warning..."

At the end of the ramp they encountered another force field.

This time, able to see the other side of the obstacle, Shadow simply Chaos Controlled them through. Rouge spared him a quick look, and noticed that for the first time he was looking a bit worn out. His breathing was a little rushed, and he even had a sheen of perspiration running down his temple.

"He's feeling it..." she thought. "Well, I shouldn't be surprised. Even before all this, he used Chaos Control to transport us halfway around the world. Even his stamina can't be limitless."

"Move!" he suddenly yelled, pushing her away from him. Rouge rolled with the shove, and felt a hint of a tingle along her body. "What was...?"

Then she noticed the triangular block of... ice (?!) that now protruded out of the ground where they had been standing. Shadow seemed to have caught some of it. His right hand was encased in a block of the stuff. Shaking the encapsulated arm, he looked around nervously. Quick as a strobe of light, he moved, narrowly avoiding another block of the strange material.

Rouge narrowed her eyes, and looked around the large room. It was the size of a hangar, rectangular, with a series of doors on one side and a much larger set of doors on another. She caught a bit of movement, and saw something rotate within the wall itself. A heartbeat later, Shadow flashed from one spot to another, avoiding another pillar of ice.

No: not ice.

Shadow still hadn't freed his other hand. This definitely wasn't ice. It had to be that weird polymer Tails had mentioned. This was one of the _real_ traps in the facility, not just ones for show like before.

"Oh, they're all quite real," he had said, leaning back in a chair while explaining what she'd likely encounter. Tapping one finger against his cheek he smirked. "I take security very seriously, especially when I have an unlimited budget. Most of the stuff in there is for dealing with the more common sort of intruder or invader. Terrorists and the like."

"But," he quickly added. "There are a few special cases you should be aware of..."

This was one of them. From what Rouge remembered, those things in the walls emitted a mixture of compounds at high speed in the form of a very fine vapor spray. When the two compounds mixed at the intersection of their sprays they combined to form some sort of synthetic polymer.

"As a Chaos User myself, I know how troublesome we can be when it comes to these sorts of things," he explained, taking a moment to lift a glass of water. "You wouldn't believe how many of Eggman's traps I've seen Sonic go through! The fundamental failing is that these traps try and kill their opponent outright, which is very hard when it comes so someone like us. They also tend to be self defeating in how destructive they are. However, anyone caught in this trap will quickly find themselves running out of room to dodge. All it takes is one solid hit, and the target - be it Sonic, Shadow or myself - is done for."

Sure enough, the room was quickly becoming in-navigable.

Polymer pillars, wedges and boxes were piled high, and hiding behind one didn't help either. The substance just seemed to overlap. The room was already very large, but at the rate things were going, even Shadow would end up boxed in and engulfed within a minute... and he still hadn't freed his trapped hand. It had taken only a glancing blow from the polymer formation; Rouge could guess that anyone caught by the vapor sprays head on would be completely frozen in place.

Thankfully, she wasn't being targeted at all.

Shadow blinked next to her, breathing heavily.

"Any ideas?" he quickly asked, pulling her arm as another block formed overhead, followed by another to their left.

"Hit the things making this stuff?" she guessed. Its what she'd have tried.

"I can't get close without being sprayed," he replied, tone remarkably level and composed. "I can't feel my right arm, either. Its completely numb up past the elbow."

That settled it: Rouge _really_ didn't want to get hit by whatever this stuff was.

"What about that Chaos Spear thing?"

"The turrets and their housings are armored with morganite. I can't damage it with chaos energy."

He tossed her to the side as a wedge shaped block of polymer solidified. Whatever computer controlled this trap was herding them into a corner. It wouldn't be long before they were overwhelmed. Physical attacks were impossible, because there were at least eight turrets in the walls, and one couldn't hit any of them without being sprayed. Chaos attacks wouldn't work either, and naturally, there wasn't anything to throw.

Ironically, a gun or a rocket or something would've...

"Explosives!" Shadow realized it at the same time she did. He grabbed her by the waist and flipped over a square block of polymer. "You have some on you, don't you?"

Without even thinking, she nodded. She _did_ carry some plastique on her for breaking open locks and doors in a pinch. Only a second alter did she realize she didn't actually have to admit that, but by then it was too late.

"Good," Shadow bluntly decided. "We don't have a lot of time. I'll get you in position. Don't bother with detonators."

Jumping and twisting and making short ranged Chaos Control jumps as necessary, he closed in on the first rotating polymer-sprayer. Rouge could see the polished sheen of its morganite armor. The substance was used in certain pieces of chaos machinery, she knew, like generators and things. It was highly resistant to chaos energy for whatever reason, but Rouge doubted it was very tough. Tossing a thumbnail sized glob of plastic explosive into one corner of the turret, she saw it stick in place.

Together, they repeated the process for another turret, and then another, and then a forth and fifth. By this point, it was becoming almost impossible avoiding touching the polymer solids. Rouge barely brushed against one and felt her left wing go completely numb. On their way to the seventh turret, a block of the stuff formed just ahead of them, and unable to dodge in time, Shadow swiped at it with his already partly encased right arm. In a second, he was covered in the stuff almost up to his shoulder.

She felt him wince, but he kept going.

Rigging the seventh and then the eighth turrets, he lit up his rocket shoes and skimmed over the almost completely encapsulated floor. with his left hand, he fired pinpoint blasts of Chaos Energy, some stronger than others, but all on target. One after another the Chaos energy set off the planted explosives, blowing the nearby vapor turrets out of their housings.

Landing carefully between a pair of ten foot tall polymer pillars, Shadow caught his breath. Rouge disentangled their limbs, and watched as he tried to move his arm. it was no good. The polymer showed no signs of reverting to a liquid or a gas, and it didn't look like even using Chaos Control could remove it. Rouge tried to move her left wing, and found that the brief contact a moment ago had still left it locally paralyzed.

"The Chaos Emerald," Shadow said, voice determined and focused as usual.

"What?" she asked, momentarily thrown.

"The Chaos Emerald. Which way is it?"

"I think..." Before she could finish, the largest door to the room opened. Long before either of them actually saw what was on the other side, Rouge had a feeling it would be nasty. That was just how things rolled when you had one "large door" and a couple smaller ones. The large door was always the unpleasant surprise.

The massive door finally slid up into the ceiling completely, revealing two large bright lights. Rouge nodded to herself. Typical.

With a heavy thud, a mechanical foot stomped out of the darkened alcove. It was followed by another heavy footfall, and another mechanical looking foot. The front of the robot quickly revealed itself, along with an armored cockpit and a lowered "face" that looked a great deal like the nose of an airplane. It took a moment for it to sink in. This was just like the transformed version of Tails' plane. It had to be.

A Cyclone-class War Machine...

"Another obstacle," Shadow growled. "This is becoming irritating."

* * *

"Shadow? Shadow is _here_? In tze Shield Bunker?" Antoine D'coolette felt a bit faint. "Mon Dieu! Thees ees a disaster!"

He wasn't alone; Rotor and Bunnie were also on the scene. With Sally and Sonic on Angel Island at the peace conference and Tails mysteriously out of contact on his way to a meet up with the Fleet out East, the disaster response lines of command were thrown out of their element. Everyone knew Shadow's reputation, and even the commissioned Freedom Fighters on rotated leave in Knothole were hesitant to enter the bunker complex below to try and fight him.

"Nicole says the automated defenses are holding him off for the moment, but she doesn't know how long we have," Rotor explained. "And he isn't alone."

Antoine and Bunnie stared at their friend.

"Rouge is with him..."

"Oh! Oh!" Antoine massaged his temple, muttering a few choice phrases neither of his companions cared to translate.

Rotor hung his shoulders in defeat. "We don't have a choice. If Shadow knows about the Shield..."

"We have to stop him," Bunnie finished. "I know. You sent for _it_?"

Rotor nodded slowly. "It'll be here any minute."

"Et? Et? Et? What ees this eet?" Antoine asked, turning towards the ruined courtyard outside the most secure building in Knothole City. "Wait! you do not mean...?"

Bunnie stood next to him, her arms crossed. "Its this or nothin' sugah."

"Non! Eet ees too dangerous!" He turned on Rotor, and then his wife. "Do you know who tze Hell ees een there? Tzat man has keeled more class-A Freedom Fighters than tze Eggman himself! You know tze order we give to recruits if tzey are to be meeting him!"

"Do not engage; flee on sight, we know," Rotor spoke up. "But we can't just sit here and wait for Sonic. There's no way he can get here in time."

"Bunnie..." Antoine appealed to her directly. "You cannot..."

"I have to try," she cut him off. "Ah'll be ok, sugah. Really."

Antoine relented, slowly, eventually. Behind them, a large black truck drove up, bearing the Royal Seal of the Kingdom. Rotor turned, nodded to the both of them, and headed over to where it parked. Together for a moment longer, husband and wife embraced. Letting the two have a couple minutes, Rotor walked up to the back of the truck.

The trailer's back door opened, and two Mobians in white lab coats stepped out.

"We ready?" Rotor asked, taking a look inside the trailer.

"Everything is set up," the first, a canine with a coat as white as his clothes replied. "I have a drip feed prepped and full containment. My staff are ready to go."

The other, a weasel with a light brown fur quickly added, "Power is at ninety percent. Highest we could get it on such short notice."

"Good. I'm going to help," Rotor announced, stepping inside.

"Yes, sir. We have a clean room in the back..."

* * *

His breathing shallow, Rotor felt his pulse quicken as he continued the operation. To his left and right, Doctors Jackson and Pack hovered, one handling the patient and the other the equipment. This was the first time any of them had done the procedure in reverse, and the situation was already presenting a nearly impossible deadline.

Carefully, Rotor directed Doctor Jackson to complete the final stage of body preparation while he got the cybernetics ready. The canine doctor deepened the cut, and Rotor heard suction noises behind the soft whiz of the hydro-scalpel. The precision instrument cleanly cut into soft Mobian flesh with a tiny high-pressure stream of saline. At the same time, it cleaned the wound area via a small vacuum in the scalpel - devouring any sectioned tissue. Rotor didn't watch the final cuts being made. He had operated on Bunnie before, but biology wasn't his specialty, or even interest. He was there to supervise and install the new cybernetics. Or rather, the old cybernetics.

Besides, he didn't need to see… her splayed open like that…

"Nurse… nurse…" he said softly, raising his voice only a fraction and holding out his hands. In seconds, a female canine came by, and delicately pulled off his surgical gloves. She then replaced them with another pair. As this happened, Rotor let his eyes wander over the array of replacements that had been prepared. Most were actually Bunnie's old military upgrades, from a year ago.

A few of the pieces were new.

He identified the more delicate looking implants. He and Tails had both worked, then and again, on Bunnie's old cybernetics. It was technically fascinating how her body was integrated with the tech, due to her botched roboticization. The actual mind-machine interfaces, the MMIs, were unique but theoretically reproducible. For a long time, she had also been one of the heavy hitters in the original Freedom Fighter group. Eventually, her expertise was better spent passing on that information rather than using it on the battlefield. She was seeing less and less combat, and after she took over the Freedom Fighter Academy she saw almost none.

However, they still kept her old gear current with the state of the art, even when it mostly just stayed in storage. For the last half year, Tails had been the only one to keep tinkering with it. Now that Rotor had a chance and an opportunity to check out that work in depth, he was a little dismayed. He recognized some of the basic architecture and design mechanics.

How had Tails gotten hold of Dark Legion technology?

Rotor wasn't sure. He wasn't sure he even wanted to know. The new limbs he knew well enough. Those were designs he had worked on, though even those showed signs of alteration. Almost a year ago, he and Tails had built two sets of upgrades for Bunnie. One was a sleeker, more cosmetic design, and the other was a more combat oriented set. At the time, Bunnie had opted for the former...

Even then, Rotor remembered seeing a small look of disapproval on Tails' face.

Later, the young fox had jokingly admitted he was a 'little jealous' that she had picked 'his' set of upgrades instead of the Tails' own. It was an odd way of looking at it. They had both contributed to both sets of upgrades, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Tails had been right. The basic design of the cosmetic upgrades were Rotor's. Tails had designed the combat upgrades later, and after asking if Rotor had any advice, they had helped each other. But really, the combat upgrades… were Tails'…

Looking at them, Rotor found he wasn't surprised. Like all of the fox's personal designs, Bunnie's new body would be functional and lethal (albeit somewhat over-engineered) and incorporating all the latest technology. Yet it would also share the flaws inherent to Tails' designs: she would be overpowered for something her size, and many of her systems were untested and experimental. Certainly, even if many of these systems had been tested individually, never had they all been tested all together.

He also seemed to have gone ahead with his obsession regarding transformations - Tails seemed to prefer making something four times as expensive, and four times as complicated, if it could only do twice the job. It was wasteful in Rotor's opinion. It was rare indeed to find Tails scale down one of his designs, making it **practical** rather than **fanciful**.

It was a big risk.

But that was also typical of Miles' engineering. He personally tested everything he made, surviving the occasional explosion, crash, fire or even electrocution. It was self-destructive, in a way, but the fox insisted on it, and only Sally had ever tried to get him to be more careful. But this was Bunnie's life…

What would be the long-term impact of what they did today?

Just then, interrupting Rotor's thoughts, he heard a plasma saw start up, followed by a steady hissing sound of Bunnie's cybernetics being detached from their mooring points. Steeling himself, he turned around, and watched as they operated. There was blood… so much blood… even if Bunnie never thought she was completely Mobian, she certainly bled enough for one. Her arms and most of her lower body had already been removed, and assistants were readying the cybernetic relays there for the next stage of adaptation. That didn't worry Rotor much. What really worried him were the extra steps being taken to reinforce the rest of her body.

"Beginning partition…" The lead doctor said, almost in a whisper, and the cutting resumed. Rotor listened carefully, and the professional mumbled under his breath, almost inaudibly, about his progress. He watched, in a mixture of mute fascination and horror, as the final stages of the operation truly began.

"Begin nutrient injection feed…"

Even though he clinically knew what they were doing…

"Feed underway…"

What had to be done…

"Brain oxygen levels stable. Looks good here. Starting procedure."

A part of him screamed…

"Deflating the lungs…"

"Removing lungs."

Screamed for them to stop!

"Isolating the heart…"

"Removing the heart…"

But.

But it was too late.

Looking at her old heart, still twitching, on an isolation tray, he felt faint. What were they doing? How could he have agreed to this? What would be left of her, when they were done with the operation? Maybe if they stopped now, maybe it wasn't too late to put everything back, to make her whole! It wasn't too late! In time, he'd figure out a way to perfect the deroboticizer, and then she could be herself again!

"Doctor."

"Doctor!"

"Doctor!!" Rotor blinked, just realizing that one of the surgeons was addressing him, obviously assuming the Mobian walrus had a degree. Of course he had none. Rotor was about to tell him to stop the procedure, to prep her for reattachment, when the crushing weight of their situation fell again on his shoulders. Everyone was looking at him now, looking for him to take them through the many cybernetics they would have to install. They all had a part to play: a responsibility to uphold.

Bunnie must have known that.

Rotor only hoped that, when all was said and done, she could forgive him for what he did this day. On the isolation tray, Bunnie's heart twitched a few more times, beating involuntarily. Rotor watched it slow, and then stop. He closed his eyes and offered her a silent prayer.

Bunnie was dead.

Bunnie Rabbot wanted to be reborn.

"Yes, right," Rotor finally said. "We have less than ten minutes. Let us finish this."

* * *

Bunnie didn't know exactly when she had opened her eyes. There was none of the normal sensation she equated with it. It was like she was a television, and someone had simply turned her on. One moment there was darkness, fleeting hints of dreams and memories, and then it all changed. Immediately, she started to blink, and felt the soft sensation of her eyelids closing soundlessly. Satisfied with their moisture, she watched as white clothed technicians, doctors and engineers milled around, checking diagnostic readouts and discussing results.

And … it was all so sharp and in perfect focus.

Focusing her eyes on a far off paper held by a Mobian at the end of the room, she found herself able to read (though not necessarily understand) the letters and numbers. Searching the room, zooming from target to target, she winced at the sudden disorientation. In a moment of panic, she wondered where she was… and that instant, in the corner of her eye, a display appeared, projected directly into her brain from cortical and spinal implants located…

She winced again, wishing she hadn't asked…

And just like that, the information was gone. Looking up at the ceiling, she tried to speak, but her mouth wasn't moving. Another moment of panic came – had something gone wrong? Was she paralyzed? Was…? A display appeared, showing sections of her body: arms, legs, head, torso… along with streams of data. Everything was displayed in green, except for a small red warning above the schematics.

- Main Power Locked -

Bunnie slowly calmed herself. Her panic was only causing an information overload. She set her sights on a nearby doctor. After a second, a target reticule appeared, and the doctor's upper body became framed in a transparent blue box. The instant she wondered who he was, the display on the side of her vision appeared again, with a rotating facial shot, and relevant information slowly scrolling below it.

She looked him over, and the targeting box shifted, from parts of his torso, to his groin, inner thighs, knees, up, pausing at his heart, elbows, wrists: all weak spots on the Mobian body. Closing her eyes, she almost groaned in confusion. This whole thing was… different. Overwhelming. Organizing her thoughts, she began to think clearly. From what she had seen, the operation had been a success. Her body was probably healing from the surgery. Aside from the immobility, nothing felt… wrong. Well, it felt a little different, but no worse than previous upgrades. There was nothing broken or ruptured, at least.

She was physically fine.

But what… what was this… information link she had…?

Cautiously opening her eyes again, she tried to control the targeting and data retrieval reflex. For a few minutes, she simply practiced holding it back, requesting more, moving and adjusting the reticule… Then, taking notice of her efforts, one of the doctors approached her with a small penlight. His mouth moved, she couldn't hear his voice. Instead his mouth became highlighted at her sudden confusion, and a line of text appeared.

~ Welcome back, Miss Rabbot. Please, follow the light with your eyes. ~

She did just that, and the doctor 'hmmed' and nodded as he examined her, moving the penlight to the left and right, up and down and around. The lead doctor – the one Bunnie remembered as Doctor Pack – turned the other doctor around and talked to him, hiding his lips behind a clipboard. They talked for a minute, attracting a few other doctors and technicians… when they separated, the diagnostic began. There was precious little time.

While it ran, and her systems underwent one last check, she learned that she had received Dark Legion implants in addition to those built by Tails and Rotor. One of them was a 'Neural Nanonic Interface,' designed to run and integrate all her new 'functions.' The way the text scrolled as they talked, sometimes from several doctors at once, confused and irritated her. Maybe it was being unable to hear… but she felt like some like of … of…

Robot

'No!' She snarled in her mind. 'NO! I'm not a robot! I'm not a robian!'

'Then why can't you move?' A voice taunted. 'Why can't you feel?'

Finally, after what seemed like a quarter hour of testing (her internal chronometer popped up and 'informed' her that it had only been two minutes), she saw a familiar face. Rotor entered the room from the far door, his eyes distant and blood shot, carrying a brown duffel bag. He walked unsteadily – more so than his usual wide shuffle – but said nothing. The other doctors were busy, and allowed him past without a word.

When he got close, he reached up and held her cheek in his wide palm. To her annoyance, she couldn't feel anything. There was only a vague sense of slight pressure being applied to her skin. No sense of hot or cold, living or dead. Turning his head, he said something, and then faced her again. It was like he was searching her face for something… a flaw, maybe? As she wondered, she saw three technicians move around and behind her.

A few seconds later, something… clicked.

- Main Power Unlocked -

A sudden explosion of voices and noises assailed her, and she shook her head in discomfort. Her long ears lowered, and her face scrunched up. It only took a few seconds to get used to the environment. Opening her eyes, she saw Rotor holding out his hand. Reaching out, first with her mechanical left, and then with her organic right, he let him help her off the vertical 'bed' she had been strapped up. Her first movements were awkward – little more than baby steps, and reacquainting herself with notions of balance and equilibrium.

"Bunnie…" Rotor struggled with his next words. "How do you feel?"

"How… do I feel?" She looked at her hands and slowly examined herself visually. The organic arm seemed the same, but as she rotated her right forearm, she saw a long metal slot or bracer running down from just behind the wrist to halfway up the forearm. The fur around it was trimmed slightly, revealing pink skin. Something… attached to it… Looking at her new mechanical arm, she began to move and rotate it, testing the range of movement.

It was surprisingly nimble.

Despite looking a little bulky, it felt light as a feather. The upper arm assembly was more complicated and heavier looking than her previous models, and she guessed that it had a lot more raw power behind it. Following it to the shoulder, she noticed that the arm assembly extended up more than before, encompassing an entire shoulder and reaching all the way to her neck. Raising the arm, she saw that it extended down to her ribcage, too. It felt sturdy… very grounded in place. The hand had strong looking fingers, with a thick knuckle guard sporting three large black spikes. The new forearm had a large metal shield-like extension, with numerous round studs. There was a small etching on it, a heart impaled on a sword.

She stared at it for a few seconds.

That was her secret tattoo.

It had been… Quick as lightning, she looked down at her waist, near the pelvis. However, instead of finding fur-covered flesh, she found metal. Like external ribs, they ran up her sides, like armor… A blush rose on her cheeks as she realized something else that hadn't previously occurred to her.

"Um… Rote, hun…" She asked, and looked down at her feet. "Could ya'll find me some clothes?"

'A blush?' Rotor wondered, seeing the change in color under the short fur of her cheeks. 'Even after all that we did to her…?'

"Uh, of course," he said, and picked up the duffel bag he'd entered with. Opening it, he shows its contents to her: an urban terrain themed camouflage bodysuit. "Change quickly. We're ground zero for the fight of our lives."

Bunnie nodded, and took the clothes. "How much time to we have? What happened?"

Just then, with superbly enhanced ears, she heard a distant crack of thunder. Rotor looked over his shoulder; he'd heard it, too.

"Not long," he replied, in a detached tone of voice. "We were running out of time, so Antoine ordered an attack on the building to buy you a couple minutes. About a hundred men went down there with him. Volunteers."

Eyes closed, Bunnie worked the bodysuit in place and hooked the belt around her waist. For a moment, Rotor could all but sense the calm before the storm.

"I want everyone to keep away from the fight. Don't come anywhere near us. I don't think..." The fingers in her mechanical hand clenched and unclenched. "I can be held responsible for any collateral damage."

Rotor nodded. "I understand."

Bunnie's light green eyes burned with an inner intensity.


	30. Crossing the Rubicon v

"Finally."

Shadow stalked deeper into the Shield Vault. It was by far the largest single area they'd yet encountered, but also the most important. In the middle of an artificial cavern, the great pulsing heart of the City Shield slowly beat, four times a minute. A two tiered cylinder, at least thirty feet high, thrummed like a beating heart. It met up with an even larger metallic protrusion that came down from the ceiling, high above. Blue and yellow energy coursed through the construct, dyeing the chamber in those alternating colors despite the otherwise neutral lighting.

Grating and walkways crisscrossed above them, connecting now abandoned lab stations and monitoring equipment. It was an impressive sight, all in all, even for those who had seen similar works of science and engineering elsewhere. In fact, Knothole's City Shield was smaller than Station Square's had been, and that was smaller still than the current shield protecting Robotropolis. However, given that the entire area this machinery now occupied had been a muddy swamp just two years ago... that was impressive.

Shadow moved towards the pulsing Shield Generator, but paused.

He still bore the polymer adhesive paralyzing his right arm.

The chamber cast long shadows, as flashing red alarm lights and stacks of crates and boxes towered like a city in miniature. Arcs of electricity and elemental energy ran overhead, and yellow chaos energy streamed through visible pipe-like wiring. The lighting was reduced due to the state of emergency, giving the place a penetrating gloom that would, hopefully, give its defender an advantage in the coming battle.

"Where is it?" Shadow asked, not bothering to turn his head. "Where is it, Rouge?"

"Ah... as I recall, the Emerald is stored in some kind of power generation alcove," she said, looking around. This place was a lot more confusing than the schematics indicated. "Probably on the bottom floor, I guess?"

Shadow's ever-sharp eyes moved from one piece of machinery to another.

"Damnit," he snarled. "Find a console or something. There has to be something here that can tell us where the Emerald is."

"R-right." He was obviously still a little pissed it had taken so long to disable most of the facility defenses. Like it was **her** fault that there weren't any convenient security consoles or anything. It wasn't exactly as easy as sauntering over to a random computer, typing furiously, and magically turning off every camera and force field in the building!

Hell, chances were that all the computers here were on lockdown, too!

Shadow continued to look around. Rouge didn't know it, but he wasn't simply looking for some kind of clue. He could see the flows of Chaos Energy around him. If an Emerald was in the open, but say: hidden in a cave or in a spider hole, or even just in some bushes... he could easily track it down by following the latent flows of Chaos Energy. Unfortunately, certain individuals had found ways of hiding or containing Chaos Energy, and this concealing an Emerald from even his senses.

Making things worse was the fact that chaos energy was currently flowing all around him, through special conduits and into that massive shield device. It made it damn near impossible to see or feel anything. The more he tried, the more confusing and blinding the mess of applied Chaos Energy became.

Footsteps.

Turning around, Shadow stared back the way they came. Flexing the fingers in his left hand, Shadow's eyes narrowed as the intruder stepped into the light. From her spot by one of the computers on the first level, Rouge gasped.

Antoine stumbled into the Shield Vault, dragging his sword behind him. He'd managed to wrap up his broken leg and brace it with part of a metal grill, probably torn from an air duct somewhere. The long slash across his chest was still slowly bleeding out. He looked half dead. Rouge couldn't imagine how the stubborn idiot was still standing.

"You... you will not..." he managed to say between ragged gasps. "You will not..."

Shadow just stared at the half dead Royal Guard.

"Shouldn't you be dead?" he asked, watching callously as the other Mobian struggled to lift his sword.

"Tze Emerald... ees what protects... thees city..." Antoine managed to hold out his arm, hand clenching the hilt of his sword like a lifeline. "You will not take it. Not while I live!"

"Not while you live, huh?" Shadow's mouth quirked into a savage grin.

"Not while I live... non...!" Antoine lunged, pivoted, and swung the sword down in a great arc. Even uninjured, the coyote stood little to no chance of landing a solid hit on the black hedgehog. Except, this time, Shadow made no attempt to dodge or block the blow.

With an audible TING Antoine's sword hit his opponent clean on the junction between the shoulder and the neck before raking across the chest. Shadow didn't move or flinch. A piece of steel spun in midair, hitting the floor and sliding up to the edge of one of the abandoned machines in the Vault. Antoine could only stare dumbly at the strike, at his sword, not broken halfway along its length, and at his opponent.

"Do you see, now?" Shadow asked. "Do you understand?"

Antoine stumbled, but Shadow seized him by the collar.

"Its Pointless. Pride, persistence, even bravery... these things are all pointless in the face of overwhelming power," Shadow explained, lifting the Royal Guard off the floor, straight armed. "Now, before you die, do you begin to grasp how futile your actions are? Do you?"

Antoine coughed, and weakly tried to stab Shadow in the side with what was left of his sword. As before, it accomplished nothing. He tried one more time, the sword never slipping from between his fingers.

"Non," he said between blood stained teeth. "Eeet ees you... who do not understand..."

Shadow said nothing; his fist began to glow with dark energy.

"Shadow!" Rouge yelled, hoping to distract him. "Wait!"

"You've found the Emerald?" he asked, glaring at her over his shoulder with one red eye.

"Ah... not yet, but...."

Shadow turned away, the blazing nightmare in his fist just inches from Antoine's face. Rouge tensed. Shadow sneered, abruptly tossing Antoine aside and firing his Chaos Spear through the Vault entryway. Beyond it, the blast of energy erupted, shaking the walls. Stepping through the doorway, a body of tawny yellow and gunmetal gray emerged unharmed.

A metallic hand clenched into a fist.

"What's this...?" Shadow asked. "Another pointless interruption?"

* * *

Bunnie stepped out of the hallway and into the light of the Shield Vault.

"Oh, that's right. The cyborg." Shadow grinned as if anticipating what was to come. "Are they that desperate to stop me?"

"That's no way tah talk to a lady." Bunnie narrowed her eyes; her targeting systems locked onto the hostile intruder. Internal sensors identified and displayed weak points and data readouts. "Didn't yah momma teach yah any manners?"

Shadow blinked, and frowned just a fraction, slightly annoyed by the question. "Tell me. Where is the Chaos Emerald? Where have you hidden it?"

"Yah must know ah won't just tell yah," Bunnie said, "Especially aftah what I just saw yah try and do."

Shadow frowned and glanced over at Antoine's unconscious form for a second before facing Bunnie again. "I see."

For a second, the Freedom Fighter also took her eyes off Shadow, to glare at Rouge. But her attention quickly returned to the immediate threat at hand. The cyborg girl's scowl deepened.

"Ah'm going to make you regret doing that to him."

"Oh?" Shadow asked.

"You think you can just walk in here and do what you've done? Kill all the Mobians you've killed?!" Bunnie asked back, crossing her arms in front of her. "I'll stop you!"

Shadow's smirk became savage and he started to walk towards her.

Bunnie's arms uncrossed, and she slid one foot back for balance. Both arms came up, her strong mechanical left facing him. Behind her left shoulder, two small coils retracted and a sot blue glow suffused down her arm along her spine, and into her cybernetic legs. A small option window appeared in the upper right corner of her vision that read: 'Combat Enhancement Protocols.'

And a second later: ACTIVE.

No sooner had she thought those words than something within her snapped and hissed. Like a shot of adrenalin straight into her brain, she suddenly felt more confident… more powerful, more capable! Anger replaced doubt, pleasure supplanted fear, and a savage grin caused the demure southern gal to grin like a Cheshire cat. Out of the gauntlet attached to her organic hand bright blue energy coalesced, before snapping out as an electron whip; sharp bladed flechettes suspended in a magnetic field.

"I think you can stop me?" Shadow was still smirking, the light from above cloaking his glowing eyes in darkness. "Maybe you'll tell me where the Emerald is… after I tear every scrap of metal and wire from your screaming body…!"

Bunnie cracked her electron whip to the side, cleaning slicing a deep groove in the metal floor. Their eyes met, bright green and dark orange, for a silent second. And then, with a wordless snarl, Shadow took to the air and the fight was on.

* * *

The Egg Carrier

Metal Sonic's steps were slightly jerky. Caked blood covered his arms. Brushing past ranks of Combots, he made his way deeper into the ship. Now back within range of their local command systems, the Tails Dolls quickly cleared their sector Commander for entrance.

The Dolls had established a secure command center in the fore of the ship from which to conduct the ongoing assault on the rest of the human held sections, primarily Command and Control and Engineering. The humans, however, had turned the ship into a maze of sealed bulkheads and corridors, booby trapping every nook and cranny. It was excruciatingly slow going, especially for an AI.

"Query: status of target?" All nine Dolls asked at the same time, the very moment Metal entered the room. Once upon a time, it had been a dining room for the ship's officers.

"Target is deceased," Metal replied, straightening up and noting the position of the Dolls clustered together.

"Observation: you are damaged," one of the Dolls said, stating the obvious. "Has your regeneration malfunctioned?"

"My Berserker Module has been damaged." Metal swayed slightly. "I am unable to produce functional berserker nanites.."

The gems on the Dolls' foreheads glowed as they electronically conversed.

"Recommendation: we have established a replacement repair bay in a lower deck. We will arrange for an escort."

"That is not necessary," Metal replied. "I am still functional."

"Notice: if your berserker cells are damaged, they must be immediately repaired." Another Doll stated. "This is our consensus."

"I said I'm fine. Leave it be."

The Dolls hummed.

"Cautionary: you do not appear to be fully functional. Seek immediate repairs. We will provide escorts."

"Didn't I just say..." Metal ducked his head for a moment only to look up at the assembled Tails Dolls with glowing red eyes. "I'm perfectly FINE!!"

That very instant, a dozen tentacles erupted out of Metal Sonic's arms and chest, spearing the stunned Dolls. Almost immediately, they began to bulge, tiny red gemstones buzzing and glowing desperately. Unintelligible static and white noise blared from their built in speakers as berserker cells rapidly began infusing, assimilating and devouring circuits and processors, metals and plastics.

Moments later, Combot Eleven Thirty Two reset his target list and began firing indiscriminately at his squadmates.

Shadowbot Five Seventeen self-terminated, along with every other unit in his formation.

Three of the two dozen surviving robians, working tirelessly in a lower deck, began uncontrollably laughing, gleefully smashing the damaged robots they had once worked to repair.

In the fore sections of the egg Carrier, Metal Madness reigned.

* * *

Outside, waiting at the edge of the nearly leveled forest, Tails cut a thin strip of apple and held it up to his tongue. Looking up at the cloudless sky, he began a silent countdown.

"Ten. Nine. Eight..."

* * *

Satellite Torch Lens Five entered designated geosynchronous orbit, replacing CB9. It was a simple communications/observation platform, with no actual AI or basic programming beyond that required to function in its necessary capacity. It was but one of many satellites that kept the Eggnet operational. At 16:42 hours, Robotropolis Standard Time (RST), it reached its designated position and began transmitting.

Uplinks were quickly established with other nearby satellites:

Echo Eye Two.

Torch Lens Four.

Charlie Baker One.

Sprint Piston Three.

It then began linkup with the regional Tails Doll Network and the nearby Eggman Air Armada.

* * *

Tails sliced another piece of apple, chewing the fruit slowly and quietly.

So far, so good.

* * *

Shadow appeared in a flash, burying his fist in Bunnie's stomach. Swinging his entire body in a wide arc, both Mobians plowed into and through an upright plasma display before Bunnie's back finally met the unyielding floor. The force of the blow sent flecks of broken plastic and smoke out from behind the southern girl's sides, and with a gasping cough, a trickle of blood escaped from her lips. Yet Bunnie responded in kind, seemingly oblivious to the damage, and her mechanical hand came down in a hammer blow, crushing Shadow's left ear, before following up with a vicious haymaker to the face that sent him flying.

The black hedgehog slid across the grated metal floor, tearing a long gash on his shoulder, before flipping up and onto his feet. His face was awash with fury as he shook the blood from his quills and raised his right hand. He didn't even give her the courtesy of calling out his signature attack before the lances of Chaos energy erupted down the length of his one good arm. Bunnie charged into the attack, armored left arm raised, the impacts of her bionic feet making shallow indentations in the floor.

To Shadow's surprise, instead of impaling his opponent, the Chaos Spears that hit Bunnie's heavily armored left arm split and exploded like a cluster bomb while the cyborg Mobian charged through the conflagration unfazed. It took only a second to determine what it was: Chaos Resistant Armor - morganite - and a lot of it.

'Then, before?' He remembered the ineffectual attack he had fired into the hallway. 'I see. More of that kind of defense?'

Shadow's feral smile widened a second before Bunnie's spiked first damn near tore it off his face.

'This… should be interesting…!'

Shadow's feet skidded across the floor, kicking up sparks as his body pulsed with Chaos Energy and his rocket shoes fired. Looking up, he wiped the blood off his face and muzzle, revealing a still present smirk. Pressing off the ground in a sudden change of momentum, he tucked into a ball, becoming little more than a blur of black and dark red. Bunnie instantly dove to the side to try and avoid the homing attack, but Shadow still managed to clip her left arm, tearing off a chunk of armor and limb.

Bunnie rolled on the ground before flipping up onto her feet.

"Pulse Cannon," She thought/ordered, as a small menu popped up in the corner of her eye, specific weapons highlighted as 'recommended' by her onboard computer. Her willow green eyes tracked Shadow as he tore through another metal display, before racing along the walls and floor at incredible velocity. Cocking her large mechanical left arm, the bottom half of the protective armor unlocked from its position and slid back slightly, allowing the barrel of a weapon to emerge. Leveling her arm at the far end of the Vault, she braced her feet, and fired.

For a hundred feet in front of her, a concentrated sonic pulse, circular in effect, shook metal to the point of cracking, and shattered plastic into dust. But Shadow had not been among the destruction. Re-aiming, she fired again, tearing a hole twenty feet in diameter in the second floor of the Shield Vault and raining down bits of broken lighting and twisted metal. Bunnie jumped back as a black body slammed into the ground at her feet before ricocheting to the side and behind her. Turning and firing, as quickly as she could from her position, the resulting sonic blast carved a deep hole in the ground and sent up a thick cloud of dust.

Narrowing her eyes in annoyance, Bunnie saw another menu appear.

- Thermoptics -

At her whim, the lenses of her pupils detached and slid into the corner of her eyes. At first, they were replaced by an ultraviolet filter, but then the infrared cycled into position and locked in place. Seeing through the smoke and haze, Bunnie willed her pulse cannon back into its protective housing. Replacing it, the sides of her mechanical arm parted a fraction, allowing twin blades to pop out, like a switchblade, before moving forward up to her wrist. Folding out from under the lower portion of the blades, two half cylinders met in the palm of her hand, becoming a handle.

Shadow appeared, literally, in a flash.

Bunnie didn't hesitate, and slashed at him with the scythe-like blades of her left arm. Shadow simply leaned back and dodged, dancing back as she advanced on him. A jab to the face missed, as did a slash to the neck, but a spinning draw to the chest drew a thin long of blood. Shadow was fast – faster than anything she remembered fighting before.

'Of course he is,' her mind lectured, 'He's as fast as Sonic. Maybe faster, at least in short bursts, thanks to those shoes.'

Through the smoke, the two danced like experienced partners in a soundless waltz, in and about, forward and backward, retreat, parry, and attack. Shadow tried to slash her with his quills and break her with his chaos-empowered fists, aiming for her unprotected organic sections. He leaned heavily into an attempted shoulder slash that Bunnie was able to side step just in time to avoid. With a wolfish cry, Bunnie committed herself fully into a lunge, bladed arm forward. Like slow motion, she watched raptly as the edges of the silver weapons slid into his collar bone, where white fur met black, with a spray of dark crimson. Blood rushed out of the hedgehog like a fountain as she cut deeper and deeper, burying fully half her twin blades into his body. At the same time, she felt a heavy pressure in her lower body, and a red and green warning sign flashed in front of her.

'Damage?'

She looked down, and saw Shadow's spear-shaped left hand buried into her abdomen. It still faintly glowed a demonic black, and had cut right through her bodysuit, impaling her with his fingers up to his thumb. Still, she barely felt it… even as Shadow's hand glowed hotly for a second, and her vision became clouded by damage signals. The ultimate life form's arm then made a sweeping motion, his hand cutting its way out of her with a spray of white, red and black fluids coiling in the air and staining the floor and wall.

With an inarticulate gurgle, both Mobians fell away from each other and stumbled back. Bunnie's blades snapped as they pressed into Shadow's collarbone, and with a sudden jolt, she went flying back and onto her backside. Shadow also fell back, his head thumping darkly against the metal floor. There was total silence for a few tense seconds.

And then Shadow started to laugh.

"Not bad…!" he said, dark voice echoing against warehouse walls. "Not bad at all!"

Several feet away, Bunnie also smiled; this fight was far from over

_ Internal Hemorrhaging - Stabilized_

_ Blood Pressure - Stabilized_

_ Power Flow – Stabilized_

_ Internal Repair Systems – Activated_

Bunnie pushed off the ground with her organic arm and got to her feet. Her left side had been ripped open, and she could see a long stain of red and white and black running down her thigh and into a pool on the floor. The colors amazed her – was that what she looked like, inside, now? There was no time to dwell on it. Her wound had not closed, but it had stopped leaking blood and whatever else kept her alive. Carefully putting two fingers into the jagged wound, she grimaced in disgust.

And yet… she remained functional and cognizant.

In the past a wound like this would've killed her.

Shadow's determined growl cut her train of thought short, and she watched in anger as he also got to his feet. His face was a mess: one ear was hanging limply, the cartilage in it broken, and his face had long gashes on the right eye and left cheek that dripped claret. He still had her broken bloodstained blades wedged into his chest. Sneering, he reached up with both hands and tore the two silver edges out with a spray of gore.

"Hmf!" He tossed the broken blades onto the ground. Looking at her with hotly glowing orange eyes, his eyes darted down to his still immobilized and useless right arm. The polymer material from before was still clinging to him, and still keeping his arm paralyzed up to the shoulder.

"You've been able to have yah way before, but I won't let yah go any further," Bunnie said, now steady on her feet. "You won't get yah hands on that Emerald…"

Shadow was slow to respond.

"I will," he eventually replied. "I have sworn to bring justice to this world."

"You?" Bunnie almost laughed at the irony. "Justice? You're a monster!"

The black hedgehog stared at her with impassive eyes. "You don't even know what you are, yet you call me a monster?"

"What **I** am? Ah don't know what you're trying to imply." Bunnie pointed at him. "But you're insane!"

"If I am, it is because this world deserves its monsters. It creates insanity. It **deserves** all the horror we can visit upon it." Shadow glared at her with burning crimson eyes. "I was created to sow terror. I was bred to abet genocide. I was taught to **hate** and I learned my lessons well. A world where a monster lives and an angel dies... **it deserves to burn.**"

"Doesn't it?" he asked, the wounds on his chest sealing up, white chaos energy burning the cuts closed. "Answer me, damnit! Does it **not** deserve to **burn**?!"

"You're insane…" Bunnie held her left arm out to the side. Selecting another attack system, her shoulder parted, widening slightly, and a small set-piece weapon emerged. Small actuators on it adjusted its aim, while on Bunnie's other hand, the long electron whip re-integrated, waving threateningly in the air, tiny blades suspended in its crackling blue glow.

Shadow vanished from sight. Bunnie snarled, and looked around. She didn't have to search for long or for very far – he was right above her. Seeing the shadow, she looked up in time to see him and fire off another shot from her shoulder cannon. The black hedgehog, however, twisted, and avoided taking another to the chest. As he fell, he grabbed her by the shoulders, knocking her onto her back. Bunnie tried to target him again, but she saw only black as he head butted her, over and over again.

Her vision began to get fuzzy.

As much damage as he was doing to her skull, he was doing far worse to her vulnerable optics. Bunnie started to lose focus, and she barely even saw the warning indicator that popped up when Shadow grabbed her shoulder cannon in his left hand, and twisted the barrel, ruining it. Thinking quickly, she activated the rockets built into her feet and calves, using them to blast out from under the ultimate life form's brutal assault.

No sooner was she free, than she changed course, and attacked with her electron whip. Shadow was quick, however, and he rolled to the side, avoiding the first attempted blow. Even with her right hand horribly damaged, she found that she could still use it. Additionally, after only a second's pain, her handy little neural interface informed her that it had intercepted and ceased acknowledging pain receptors from that part of her body. So: pulling her arm back, she brought around the glowing whip for another strike.

Shadow jumped and rolled and dodged, well aware what a hit from the cyborg's weapon could do. Behind him, foot wide scrapes appeared in the metal wall, and an entire walkway on the second floor tore apart. Stopping, briefly, he fired a Chaos Spear up and into the ceiling. Then he went back to dodging.

Bunnie tended not to move when she used her whip attack, and Shadow had not dismissed it as coincidence. Rolling forward, he aimed another shot up and into the air. This time, Bunnie looked up to see what he had fired at, and saw the falling roof support. Drawing back her electron whip, she used it to defend herself, catching and cutting the curved support beam in half.

This action, however, left her open.

That split second was enough. Enough for Shadow to snatch a long piece of broken metal from the floor with his good left hand. Enough for him to close the distance, and slam his shoulder into her. Enough for him to bring his arm back, and ready the long shaft of steel. By the time Bunnie realized the situation she was in, it was too late. Shadow slammed her into the twisted remains of a piece of metal rebar, and ignoring the hand clenching fur on his shoulder, brought down his jagged weapon. Bunnie gasped, but lost her voice when the thin metal spear plunged into her neck just above the collarbone and pinned her to the crate behind her.

"Aa… aaa…!" She struggled to move, and warnings flooded her vision. Unlike before, critical components had been damaged, and she had started to lose feeling in her extremities. The word 'Compensating' and 'Emergency' came up several times in rapid succession, and then there was just a dull hiss, like static. To her side, the bright blue glow of her electron whip faded, and the flechettes fell to the ground with a clatter like steel rain.

Shadow stood in front of her, breathing heavily.

Flipping back onto her feet, she saw him hold out his arms, and in that split second, Chaos Control. Bunnie's eyes narrowed as she searched through the ruins of the Vault. Frantically looking for some heat source to lock onto, she came up short, and for an instant she wondered if he had made good his escape. The thought of pursuing him had some appeal, even though her duty was (first and foremost) to protect the Chaos Emerald that empowered the precious City Shield.

WARNING

The message came too late. By the time it had registered in her still largely organic brain, Shadow was already behind her. Turning her head, she tried to see him, but a bloody white glove had her by the side of her head and an index and middle finger locked around her right ear. Bunnie felt him pull her head back, and his breath was hot on her neck.

"Those who stand in the way of my cause," he said, softly, and Bunnie felt a sudden wave of disorientation sweep over her. Her vision became black, and then resolved anew: she could see a brightly colored blur in front of her face.

"Are not worthy of their lives!" he roared, slamming her face first into the pulsing Shield Generator.

The impact stunned her, but did little worse. Then she realized just where she was. Fighting to force her head back, she barely made it in time. A second later, the reciprocating cylinders of the Generator came together, crushing her organic arm into paste. Thankfully her system seemed to have already been so hopped up on chems that she barely felt it.

"Now!" Shadow roared behind her. "DIE!"

Slamming the back of her head into his face, Bunnie spun and desperately kicked into his torso, activating her rocket boots. Shadow went flying, half his body set on fire, before crashing into and through a second story catwalk. A few seconds later, Bunnie also crashed to the floor, shock and blood loss nearly overwhelming her systems. Alarms blared in her head, and when she saw what was left of her arm... her arm... the arm she had been born with... it was almost too much. She felt sick, but no bile - or any taste for that matter - rose up her throat.

An explosion of black fire forced her to cover her eyes. Bits and pieces of metal fell from higher up, some large enough to crush the more delicate machinery in the area. Behind her back, she could feel the Shield Generator pulsing on, paying no mind to the battle raging around it. Sighting a black shape emerging from within the black flames, Bunnie tried to level her remaining arm at the target.

Only for him to blink behind her.

Somewhere high above, another rafter fell to the ground with a crash.

Bunnie rolled onto the floor, fired blindly upwards, only for one of Shadow's shoes to land directly onto her face. Bunnie screamed as it landed again and again, over and over until the back of her skull broke through the grating on the floor. Her vision blurred and then turned briefly to static.

"This is the end for you," he said it with absolute finality.

Bunnie's vision flickered again.

"I have no more time to waste..." He looked down on her with pitiless eyes. "On a brain in a box."

'A brain... in a box?' Bunnie struggled to understand. 'No. No I'm not! I'm...!'

"Should I show you what you really are?" he asked, and with one swift kick and twist, Shadow the Hedgehog decapitated her.

Rouge, who had been behind cover this entire time, screamed as Bunnie's head rolled across the floor. Kicking her legs, she backed away from the sight of it. She barely got more than a foot away from the thing - it thankfully stopped when it hit an upturned metal plate in the floor - before bumping into something.

Shadow stared down at her.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, looking down at the bat.

Rouge's lips flapped, but she couldn't quite form words.

Shadow 'tsked' and walked past her over to the head. Picking up the grizzly trophy, he held it by the ears. Disgusted as she was, Rouge found she couldn't look away. It was just too horrible to even try and ignore.

"Reinforced cranial structures and an artificial spinal cord," the black hedgehog described the features with clinical detachment. He then turned the head towards the beaten, bloody, and beheaded body.

"Did you think those were normal physical features, cyborg?" he asked. "I could tell from the start... your Mobianity was only really skin deep. You may have been only 'half robot' before, but now you're just a brain in a pretty looking box."

He turned the head back around.

"Be thankful. If someone cares to repair you, maybe we'll meet again before the end comes."

Tossing Bunnie's head away like so much trash, the ultimate life form stalked towards Rouge. his left arm, his only good arm the entire fight, was drenched in blood. Alone again in the empty Shield Vault, his steps were like sequential thunder.

"The Emerald," he said, repeating it like a mantra. "The Emerald. **Where is it, Rouge?**"

"I think I've located it," she said, forcing herself calm. "I **know** I've located it. But I couldn't find a way to unlock the..."

He loomed over her like a black monolith.

"Show me where it is. Now."

Rouge nodded and lead him over to a far wall covered by pattern of blue and white circles and gridlines. Shadow followed her, swirling chaos energy vaporizing the blood caked into the fur of his arms and the fibers of his gloves. Rouge stood in front of the pattern, pointing at the circles. On closer inspection, they were actually indentations in the wall, lit up from within.

"Behind here..." she said, stepping back. "I'm sure of it."

Shadow carefully analyzed the surface, running a finger along one of the grooves.

"I know what this is," he finally spoke after taking a couple seconds to be sure. Nodding to himself, he pressed his hand up to one of the circles. Black energy wafted from his palm into the material. He then repeated the process for two other circles. Each time, the wall emitted a soft chime.

"Shadow?" Rouge asked, not quite getting what he was up to.

"Only someone with my kind of power can open this lock," he replied. "This... is like a game Gerald used to play with me... when... a long time ago. An eternity ago."

After a couple tries, the largest circle lit up with black energy and the whole thing split in half. The sound of unlocking metal could be heard as the wall recessed and then retracted into the metal around it. Behind that, long lines of screws wound around, pulling back into the four corners of the high security vault.

Finally, finally.

"Finally!" Shadow reached inside, eyes lighting up from the amethyst glow of his hard won prize. "Yes. Yes! Finally!"

The man-made hedgehog held the Chaos Emerald up to the light, laughing.

"This is it! Six of the Seven!" Lowering his arm, he let out a sigh of relief. "Yes. So very close, Maria!"

"Shadow," Rouge interrupted, leaning a bit closer. "Don't forget..."

"I know. I know," he repeated. "Come. The Doctor will be most pleased."

Placing his good hand on her waist, he pulled her close.

And, just like that, they were gone.

* * *

Sitting alone at the edge of the blasted forest, watching over the now silent battlefield surrounding the Egg Carrier, Miles "Tails" Prower tossed aside the apple core. Snapping open a small tin case, he popped a tiny mint into his mouth, balancing it on the tip of his tongue. Before him, over a thousand Combots and other enslaved and subverted robots stood in long neat rows: parade formation, arms outstretched in mute and unwavering salute. The last twelve hours had been well spent; things were coming along mostly to plan.

"T minus sixty hours," the kitsune muttered, biting down on the mint candy and walking past the rows of former Eggman robots and badniks.

It was time to get back to work.

* * *

---

**Notes:**

Ok. Technically that's the end of Chapter 9. Time for Chapter 10. Gotta squeeze all the climactic elements into that one, so expect it to be as long as 9 if not longer. It is good to be wrapping things up here, though! Even after Chapter 10, I'll have to propagate some of the changed and retcons up into NWO, too, though the differences won't be too major.

Guess that's it for my notes. If you like the new COA Reloaded chaps, or if you miss some of the old stuff, or if anything else comes to mind, let me know it! I always try and be responsive to my readership.


	31. Countdown to Extinction i

**Author's Notes:**

My special thanks go out to everyone who reviewed! While I'm not doing this for review counts or anything like that, it gives me vital feedback on what my readers find particularly interesting or shocking and what my writing makes them feel. To me, that's invaluable. I try and answer any direct questions in reviews that I can by making personal PMs, but sadly, that means I can't really get in contact with any Anonymous posters.

I'm not normally much for author's notes, and I'm not really like some authors I know who can and do write a long introduction to every chapters, addressing reviews. Even now, I'd like to keep this to just three paragraphs. I've finished COA:ACO (it ended up running an extra chapter), and will be uploading chapters 10 and 11 promptly.

It was a hell of a lot of work doing the Reload; much more than I thought it would be when I started working on the project. I had initially assumed it would just be a matter of making some changed to most of the fanfic's scenes, but it's grown so far beyond that premise…! It's still shocking to me! Well, you've come **this far**, right? Ok then.

Time for the finale.

* * *

**"The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise"  
- Tacitus**

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER TEN:_

**Countdown to Extinction**

* * *

Doctor Robotnik could only watch as his fleet tore itself apart.

Floating holographic displays bore out scenes of Metal Madness: it had started with a single _Egg Predator_ class New Destroyer, turning about and opening fire on a nearby _Egg Hunter_ class Defense Destroyer. Seconds later, firefights erupted between cruisers, destroyers, and even strike craft. More than half the fleet slowed and in an act of unmatched insanity, turned on the other half.

More than a hundred kilometers to the east, the GUN Fleet Remnant that the Armada had been chasing began to turn. Diverting his attention to the rout-turned-battle, the so called Eggman quickly determined the nature of the corruption sweeping through his forces. Infectious code was propagating all throughout the Eggnet, carried worldwide by the network of communication and observation satellites overhead.

It seemed impossible anyone could launch an InfoSec Attack of this magnitude.

By design, the Eggnet had very limited access points for two way transmission of data. Even Minibosses and Underbosses had only limited permissions. The security wasn't simply digital, either. Security was administered through coded point-to-point quantum entanglement. A system wide corruption on this scale was only possible if something with full access became compromised, and even then, that corruption would be checked and contained by the regional Tails Doll Networks.

Something like this... would require either his personal access codes (impossible), or the almost simultaneous corruption of an S-type Underboss and the entirety of a regional Doll Network. Working, Eggman narrowed down the initially infected satellites, confirming his suspicions. Yes: there was only one place where this could have happened. There was only one region where the Underboss and his corresponding Doll Network were in close proximity.

Metal Sonic had turned.

Eggman sneered at that; he had been so careful this time, keeping the robot's personality and AI intact while enforcing obedience and loyalty. Metal Sonic's adaptability and independence had always been a great strength and one the doctor hoped to retain. But his loyalty had also always been an issue. With this last iteration of the design, Robotnik had put special attention and care into finding a workable balance between the extremes of a mindless servant and a thinking being. Metal had worked perfectly - just perfectly - for more than a year now.

Things had been going so well with MetalSonic that Eggman had even upgraded him with some more exotic features. Shadow's presence on the roster had made it seem less and less likely that Metal would be strictly needed for Anti-Sonic duties, so Robotnik had hoped to diversity the robot's repertoire. It had seemed a safe bet at the time. Now... Now everything was in shambles.

Metal Sonic had gone rogue at the worst possible time. It was impossible to guess how. Had he encountered some kind of virus or hack during his attack on the Overlanders? Had the berserker cell modifications caused a malfunction? Had a glitch or conflict developed in his logical permutations? Communications had been knocked out over the battlefield... perhaps that had caused it? Isolation from the Eggnet and the oversight of the Tails Dolls?

Eggman narrowed his eyes, watching the displays.

The Eastern Egg Armada, it seemed, was about to be destroyed or converted wholesale. What was left, the GUN New Navy would pick off when it finished coming about. Twelve cruisers and twenty three destroyers, all top of the line models, lost. Catastrophic would be a good word to describe it. It went without saying that Metal Sonic himself was a complete loss at present, as was the Second Combot Legion stationed with him.

"Tsk."

The mad genius turned calmly from one screen to another.

He had been so happy just moments earlier; almost on the verge of giggles even. Shadow had reported success in his attack on Knothole and Eggman had even had the pleasure of finally seeing its accursed city shield materialize and then vanish on the scopes of one of his spy satellites. Without the Chaos Emerald it had no ability to maintain the levels of power required for a two kilometer wide shield, much less the cloak. It had been a sight he had longed to see and expended much effort and energy to enjoy.

The disaster in the East, thanks to Metal's corruption, instantly soured the otherwise auspicious turn of events in Knothole. Even with Knothole City shield-less and vulnerable, he no longer had the effective power projection to strike at it. At least not conventionally. In time, the Eye of Helios would turn on Knothole and burn it off the face of Mobius, but that would be some time from now. It would have been so much quicker to consolidate and re-route the air fleet after finishing off GUN.

Elsewhere, things were also going awry.

Obviously, the peace conference on Angel Island was about to collapse. News of Shadow's attack would have reached there some time ago. There would be no explaining it away. The Mobians would be enraged by the betrayal and the war would pick up where it left off... or nearly so. The two week ceasefire had been a boon to the Empire's forces. Units that had been near the breaking point due to lack of supply and maintenance in the field were back to nearly one hundred percent.

Idly stroking his moustache, the mad scientist wondered if Snively had been successful in finally offing that annoying little Princess with R-71. That would certainly be enough to turn an old man's frown upside down! Princess Sally had been quite the irritating little pest over the years, and it would be simply wonderful to imagine her hemorrhaging and choking on her own blood. It would be a suitable end for the miserable little creature. Ideally, Sonic would even get to watch as his beloved Princess meet her end.

"Oh, but that would be _nice_," Eggman mused aloud, but... it also wasn't likely. The Princess had been taken into seclusion due to a sudden bout of illness. Still! There would be other chances to watch her die, he was sure of it. It was much more important that Snively return alive and intact. He was a necessary and precious part of what would become Helios, after all.

The sound of quick footsteps, Mobian ones (the stride was simply too small for most humans or humanoid robots), interrupted Robotnik's contemplation. He ignored the intrusion for the moment, returning his attention to isolating and containing the damage from the new Metal Sonic situation, and the still-intact and dangerous GUN Fleet Remnant.

Both really did need to be destroyed.

"Where are you headed, Metal?" Eggman pondered the hypothetical aloud. If he was Metal Sonic, and he was malfunctioning, where would he go? Most likely the robot would have two targets, those being his creator and his primary target. The question was really whether Metal would go after Sonic first or his dear 'father' Robotnik. That was a mathematical tossup.

Maybe, both at the same time?

Regardless, the humans needed to be stamped out. At the moment, they were more of a threat than the Mobians. The Western Egg Armada wasn't the equal of the fleet assembled in the East, but it would have to suffice. The relatively minor Southern Fleet could be brought up at flank speed to support the push. By then Helios would be in the air and fully charged and he could take his time wiping all his enemies off the map.

One hand hovering over a holographic display, Eggman confirmed that the Network Corruption had been basically contained and that his new security routines had closed up any infection holes. It would be impossible to clean the system completely, at least without physically destroying the infected Networks, but only some regional systems had been severely compromised. Robotropolis and most of the fleet assets were still protected by their Tails Dolls. It was an infuriating setback, but nothing to panic about. Not now that he had Six of the Seven Chaos Emeralds...

"Doctor," Shadow prompted, growing tired of waiting.

"Yes, Shadow, I know." Eggman spun to face his more capable servant. "Let's see it."

The black hedgehog nodded once, holding out his left hand. The amethyst Chaos Emerald, perfect and flawless, glowed faintly in the ultimate life form's glove. This was, as Eggman recalled, the Emerald from Downunda.... the very one that had once been used to power and control a New Black Doom and Black Arms Army.

That had proven to be an interesting mission report. Of course, there was no actual evidence to connect the sudden rise of a new Black Army to GUN but Robotnik was fairly certain they had a hand in it. After that whole affair, Sonic's sidekick had managed to escape with the Emerald.... but only by leaving his subordinates, the Downunda Freedom Fighters, to die. Oh yes. That had been amusing to read at the time.

'And now the Emerald is ours,' Eggman thought with an amused chuckle. 'What a meaningless sacrifice they were! How wonderful…!'

The rotund man smiled smugly.

"Superb work as always, Shadow. Feel free to add it to the Eclipse Chamber as soon as you leave... You've certainly earned it."

Shadow inclined his head.

"And Rouge the Bat!" Eggman turned his attentions to the canny chiropteran. "A pleasure to see you again, my dear! Though I must say... I had expected to hear from you sooner than this."

Put on the spot, Rouge shrugged nonchalantly.

"I didn't want to blow my cover early," she explained, then slyly added, "I think I came through in the end, wouldn't you say?"

"Very much so." Eggman stared down at her. "So, you wish to be an Underboss, hmm? Of where?"

"If I get to choose," she said, pretending to think about it a bit. "I'd say the Western Continent. It's quiet. Remote. Not a lot of trouble from the locals. Cat Country is also well known for its mineral wealth... and its gems!"

"Of course, of course!" Eggman smiled graciously. "As soon as we have the Seventh Emerald, you'll have your personal continent. And more."

Rouge smiled right back. "Sounds wonderful. As soon as I have some insurance, I'll happy tell you everything I know, including the location of the Seventh Emerald."

Eggman's smile faded just a fraction.

"Of course," he cordially replied. "I have a room set out for you... your old one, actually. If you need anything, feel free to make use of the facilities here. My house is your house."

Rouge inclined her head respectfully.

"Go on now," he concluded, shooing them both away with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Shadow. After you finish with that Emerald, I'll take a look at that substance on your arm."

"Yes. Thank you, Doctor."

As the two left, Eggman's smile vanished entirely. The bat was being more than a little coy... but he supposed it really was only sensible. The truth was that he did have something of a bad reputation. He even considered letting Rouge keep her little Underboss command out in the boondocks. She really was very resourceful, and a potentially valuable resource. It would be a waste to just roboticize her after he had all the Emeralds.

Turning back to the screens, he immersed himself in his work; there would be time to ponder Rouge's fate later. For the time being, he would just see how she fit into his plans and then go with his gut. If she came through with the Seventh Emerald... well, there was room for generosity in his heart. He could let her enjoy life for a year or two before both she and Shadow became well and truly redundant.

Robotnik smiled twin rows of great white teeth.

It wasn't betrayal, per say. It was simply a matter of efficiency.

* * *

"Arm still numb?"

Shadow blinked at the question, and the supposed concern. He didn't bother to look down at the still polymer encapsulated limb. It was still numb, and he still had no way to remove the damn stuff he'd been sprayed with. It was quickly rising up his personal list of "things I hate more than normal." Whoever came up with this stuff was a real piece of work.

"Yes," he finally said. "Still numb."

Rouge walked alongside him, resting her hands behind the small of her back.

"I'm sure the Doc can fix it!" she assured him. "IQ of 300 and all that."

"Well..." Shadow felt his normal impulses ease up a bit. Rouge had been nothing but helpful, and now she had been responsible for helping him get two of the precious Emeralds. Taking a look at her, and the easy, confident way she acted, he relaxed a bit.

"I should hope the Doctor can do something," he replied, shaking the trapped arm slightly. "I don't want to go through life with it like this."

"Mm," she muttered in agreement.

"Have you..." he paused, not quite sure how to make idle conversation. He thought back to Maria, and her friends, and how they acted. "Have you done anything interesting these last few months?"

She smiled brightly at him. "Oh, this and that! Took a trip down south to the Ginger Islands... went out by Casino Night."

"Before or after...?"

"Before you came through and raised Hell."

"Ah. Well, those places seem... nice."

"Casino Night **is** really nice if you know where you're going and don't go out of your way to make a scene," she explained, stars (and rings) in her eyes. "The lights, the sounds, the extravagance!"

"The noise, the pollution, the people..."

"The lights and fireworks!"

"The disorienting strobe lights and the fire hazards."

She stared at him like he was from space. She'd obviously forgotten he literally was from space.

"You know you liked it," she insisted. "Why else would you end up competing on Bingo Highway of all places?"

"It was only to get the Chaos Emerald." He held up the one in his left hand. "That's all. I don't exactly enjoy pinballing around a thousand feet in the sky."

"You hedgehogs are built for that kind of thing." Rouge chuckled. "I'd compete, myself, but no spines. Where are we, anyway? I don't remember any of this being here before."

He nodded slowly in understanding. "Most of this area would look new to you. We're inside Helios now, not the city."

"Helios? What's that?"

He opened his mouth as if to reply, but didn't.

"Shadow?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing I guess," he relented. "Helios is what the Doctor calls the parts of the city that were redesigned to handle flight."

"Flight; you mean like Angel Island?"

"Yes and no." Shadow led them down a clean grey metal corridor. "From what I've heard, just getting a chunk of land into the air isn't that hard. Most of the new sections are to keep everything intact once it's in the air and to make it self sufficient. The rest is to power a defensive and offensive system of some sort."

"Must be something pretty big if you need all these Emeralds," Rouge speculated. "I don't think the Death Egg used all seven, did it?"

"That was a bit before my time," Shadow responded. "I hadn't been thawed out yet. No, most of the systems are built around something called an Eclipse Chamber. It was a weapon designed by Professor Gerald Robotnik..."

"The Doc's grandfather, right?"

Shadow nodded, a bit more enthusiastically now. "Yes. Gerald was a great man... versed in many scientific and academic fields, from archeology to zoology. Back when it first formed, GUN put him in charge of building weapons and orbital defenses. He ran most of the projects on board the ARK... I remember back when the orbital ring was still being built. It was... quite a sight."

He shook his head to dispel those old memories.

"Anyway, the most important project on the ARK was a really large beam cannon, powered by the Seven Mobian Chaos Emeralds. As a last resort, this weapon was supposed to be able to destroy the Black Arms before they reached Mobius. But GUN ran into problems... they couldn't find all the Chaos Emeralds to make Eclipse work, and everyone was worried about the Mobians attacking us while we were fighting the Black Arms."

He frowned a bit.

"I guess that doesn't matter anymore. No one ever got Eclipse working, but now... we're close to seeing it at full power," Shadow's tone morphed from nostalgic and introspective to excited. "I'll finally be able to see Maria's face again!"

"Maria?" Rouge asked. "I've heard you mention her before."

Shadow immediately clammed up.

"Oh!" Rouge ribbed him playfully. "She a friend of yours?" The bat then winked. "She a... girlfriend of yours?"

"N-n-no!!" Shadow blushed down to his roots. "I mean, no! No! We were just friends! Good friends!"

"You dog you!" Rouge gave his shoulder a quick jab. "What breed was she?"

He quickly resumed a stony expression, fighting down the embarrassment from before. Clearing his throat, he hugged the captured Chaos Emerald close to his chest with one arm. Rouge backed off a bit at the reaction but sensed he at least wanted to say something.

"She wasn't a Mobian."

Rouge's mouth formed into a perfect little "o"

"You - you mean?"

He shook his head again. "Like I said, we were close friends. She wasn't very healthy and I was made to cure her, to help her. That was one reason I was made anyway... but it was more than just that. She taught me what it meant to be more than just an experiment or a prototype. I... I cared for her, but things happened. She died."

Rouge lent a sympathetic hand on his arm. "Shadow..."

He looked ahead, focused and determined.

"Everything I've done... everything I will do... is to atone for letting her die. I know nothing I do can bring her back but I can make sure this world never makes another Maria suffer or cry! That was Maria's dying wish! I'll wash away her tears and save this evil world!"

"Is that why you're collecting the Emeralds for the Doctor?" Rouge quietly asked.

"Eclipse is the answer," he replied. "Eclipse will bring peace. Doctor Gerald said it himself once: Eclipse will bring peace."

"Here…" Shadow pointed down to the end of the hall, and to a large airlock-like door. A reinforced catwalk separated what was beyond that door from the rest of the superstructure. Getting closer, Rouge could see that the inner wall was actually spherical. It was just so large, so high, that one could only see that it was curved from a distance. It was a sphere suspended within an even larger sphere.

Intermittent flashes of lightning ran along the wall's smooth surface along with blue and yellow will-o-wisps. The flashing balls of light swept around at high speed, zipping between the two curved surfaces. Rouge tried to estimate just how large either of the spheres were, either the innermost one, or the hollowed out area it rested within, but the perspective was messing with her sense of scale.

Stepping inside a small room past the first door, Shadow motioned for her to stay in place. The door in front of them remained closed while the one they had just passed through shut and locked with a mechanical whirr. A second later, and a faint mist filled the room.

"Don't worry," he quickly said, guessing what she was thinking. "This is just a decontamination room."

Rouge still breathed in a little warily. Staring down at his still encased right arm, Shadow sighed. Even the De-con spray wasn't removing the gunk.

"What on Mobius is this stuff?"" he growled, finally displaying some visible aggravation. "Damnit."

"Shadow..." Rouge took the opportunity to ask him something. The de-con room would provide them with a measure of privacy, but she still kept her voice low. "Aren't you a bit worried the Doc will double cross us?"

He looked away. "I wouldn't say worried. I've got my situation well in hand."

"Great," she replied, hands on her hips.

"I wouldn't worry about a double cross, Rouge," Shadow assured her with a small smile. "Like I said, I have the situation under control."

"I hope so..." Rouge didn't argue. "Don't suppose you'd let me in on this great backup plan of yours?"

He laughed, though it sounded suspiciously like "he-he-he-he" – just the kind of particularly evil laugh that always ended up causing to trouble down the road. Rouge sighed. Why did she always end up around guys who had _that_ kind of laugh?

"Naturally, the Doctor has plans to betray us," Shadow casually reasoned. "Just as Snively has plans to betray him. In a situation like that we have to look out for ourselves."

"You wouldn't stab _me_ in the back, would you?" she asked, batting her eyes at him.

He just smiled. "I could ask you the same thing."

"So no one trusts anyone?" she asked. "What a model organization this is. Maybe we can all stab each other in the back at the same time! Snively kills Robotnik, who kills you, who kills me, who kills Snively. Perfect, huh?"

He chuckled darkly at the picture.

"You forgot Metal Sonic, though."

"Oh... oh yeah..." Rouge rubbed her left arm. "He doesn't count anyway. He's too obsessed with beating Sonic, right?"

"Things will work out," Shadow concluded with absolute confidence. Above them, the grates hissed and the cleansing mist cut off. Finally, the inner door opened. Shadow was walking briskly now, obviously quite happy with himself for being so close to his goal. Rouge followed close behind.

Together, they walked up to a large bulk elevator built into a slanted incline. Rather than go straight up or down, the elevator worked diagonally. It took them closer to the _center_. The walls of the device itself were plexiglas, and revealed a staggering assembly of high technology gizmos and piping, humming, glowing generators and tiny maintenance machines.

'Tails would probably be drooling if he were here,' Rouge wisely kept her thoughts to herself. 'Who knows what even a tenth of all this stuff does?'

A minute later, the elevator stopped, and Shadow opened the doors leading into a curved walkway. Apparently, inside the sphere was yet another hollow space. It was a spherical cavern, lined by metal plates and woven together by piping. It was completely dark except for the dull red glow of emergency lights interspersed every hundred feet. Otherwise, the hallowed out area was bare.

"This is the Eclipse chamber?" Rouge asked, taking it all in. "I don't see the other Chaos Emeralds."

"The Emeralds have to be inserted into the control ring," Shadow replied, walking along the catwalk to and indented surface along the equator of the hollowed sphere. Holding up the Chaos Emerald, he carefully maneuvered it into place. On contact with the wall, a stream of lights coursed through the structure. An orange holographic projection appeared over the Emerald, and then turned green as the gemstone slid fully into the wall.

Shadow stepped back, and the green hologram twisted and turned, different rings locking in place. After a few seconds, the innermost ring turned yellow. The circles then disappeared, only to be replaced by a prominently displayed number: 6. All around the equator of the chamber, other lights and numbers appeared at regular intervals. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Only one spot was obviously still vacant.

"This is it!" Shadow called out, running back to where Rouge still stood. "Eclipse is finally starting up! Amazing, isn't it?"

Blue tinted light began to suffuse the walls, rising up from the middle ring all the way to the top. Intricate lines of light intersected and turned, and even the walls themselves appeared to start moving: revolving. Flashes of yellow began to appear deeper within the chamber, near the very center. Pulsing with power, the entire chamber hummed and purred like a giant engine, building up to a mighty crescendo.

Finally, one of the flashes didn't die out...

In the center of the Eclipse Chamber, a tiny ball of yellow-white light took form.

Shadow reveled in the sight, one good arm held out triumphantly.

"It feels incredible! Even at less than one tenth full power!" He turned to Rouge, clasping her shoulder cheerfully. "This is all thanks to you!"

Rouge grinned, but couldn't quite bring herself to beam at the accomplishment.

'I really hope Miles knows what he's doing...'

"We have to get that last Emerald!" Shadow declared. "Then everything will be perfect!"

Rouge nodded, more relenting than agreeing.

"If you say so..."

* * *

T minus fifty four hours.

Standing on the former flag bridge of the EEV-090762, Miles Prower cupped his hands behind his back. The Battlebird Armada, he truly felt at that moment, had absolutely nothing on him. In less than twenty four hours he had basically hijacked the largest single Air Armada on the planet. It really **had** to be a record of piracy unmatched in Mobian history.

"Yar," he growled, trying it out.

Grinning excitedly, the kitsune rubbed his hands together. Yes: so far, things were going pretty well. Based on panicked reports over secure military channels, Knothole had indeed been raided by Shadow. He had taken Rouge with him on the excursion, which wasn't totally unexpected, but she had gotten through unharmed. Sadly, a great many had lost their lives in the defense of the Generator... and two dear friends had barely survived at all.

Rotor must've taken Bunnie's old body out of storage. In retrospect, it would have been better to destroy that somehow before he left. She never would have been sent in to fight with her civilian body. Tails accepted responsibility for that oversight. He'd simply forgotten all about the possibility of her swapping one chassis for another.

But what was done was done.

Shadow had taken the Emerald, and the City Shield was almost completely non-functional without it. Miles rather suspected that the city authorities were regretting not taking his advice and investing in backup power plants... even a couple dozen megawatts would have been enough. Stripped of their precious shield to hide behind, the city was in an uproar. For the first time in more than a year, people were afraid again.

Good.

They had grown complacent beneath that shield, hiding in the forest like frightened children. What they had wasn't real peace; it was a false and dangerous security that left them blind to the truth. Shields would never end wars. That job fell to the spear, the sword, and the gun.

Of course, he would be blamed. Well, he **was** to blame, but he would also **BE** blamed. Tails accepted that fact. To the world at large, he could be seen as a fool. He had been duped and deceived. And now, he had deserted his duty to pursue a personal vendetta. All that was just fine. All that was necessary.

"Helios, was it? A weapon based on one of the old ARK Orbital Defenses?"

Miles now had a good idea of just what Helios was and what the Eclipse Chamber could do. Truly, Gerald Robotnik had been a genius even among geniuses: a mind without peer! Tails was all but in awe of the man. True, it had taken the loss of _that_ Chaos Emerald to get the information he needed...

But that was _ok_.

That would _work_.

"Gentlemen. Fellow pirates. Yar! Avast and project ye me main screen!"

Sadly, his Miles-ified crew lacked the enthusiasm of their Lord Captain. Thanks to his hacking of the Fleet and what was left of the Second Legion, Tails currently had several thousand Robians, Combots, Shadowbots, and other assorted badniks at his command. The ships themselves were automated and also under his control. Among his first acts as "Captain" was to order the re-painting of ships and crew a garish and all-too conspicuous mix of yellow, red and blue. He also ordered the spray painting of as many skull motifs as possible. It would make them great targets.

And it felt good to give the robians something productive to do.

A holographic display popped into thin air a few feet from where Tails' stood, displaying his last request: a fleet review and summary. Less than a hundred kilometers to the south flew a separate formation of airships: these were the remains of GUN's New Navy. They had been warned to watch for a "surprise" and avoid direct contact with the larger enemy fleet, and now cautiously flew alongside Miles' Pirate Armada.

"Ah, the life of a Sky Pirate," Tails chortled to himself. "Looks like we're in range. Burst transmission to contact N-five-eight-one and _TFS Vesuvius_. Add secure line priority blue-seven-yellow-eight-two."

The holographic screen split into four: one migrated lower to the floor while the other three took up equidistant positions to the front, left and right. Miles frowned and quickly corrected the left and right positions to be closer together, using his fingers to drag the holograms.

And overlander face appeared on the first comm. screen.

Followed by another human.

Then, lastly, Nicole's lynx avatar appeared.

"Warm welcomes from the Ex-Eggman Air Fleet! Now under New Management!" Tails declared, holding out his hands in greeting before clapping them together.

The overlander female on the central screen had chestnut brown, shoulder length hair and light blue eyes that shone with serious determination. This was Aya Florentine, the Captain of the still-grounded Egg Carrier (the ship really did need a new name in Miles' view), and nominal speaker for the Navy Arm of the GUN Remnant. The woman was functionally an Admiral, but from what he understood, most of the New Navy officers preferred to retain their old Station Square ranks.

"We have you on our scopes," she stated, still sounding suspicious of him. "I assume you have full control over what is left of the enemy fleet?"

Tails grinned viciously. "Those robots that I couldn't hack, I made 'em walk the plank. It was a _long_ fall."

"And what's to become of this new fleet of yours?"

This time, the speaker was the male human on the left hand screen: a fair haired, strong jawed type named Halcyon Brin. He was a prominent civil authority among the GUN Remnant, serving (as Aya technically did) directly under Mastermind. Miles had actually expected to be dealing with Mastermind himself. As distasteful as the idea was, he preferred not to force GUN's captains to decide between ending the war and turning traitor. That was never an easy decision, Miles knew that personally.

Luckily, Brin had instead made himself available.

"My fleet fights for me," Tails made it perfectly clear. "Not for King Acorn, not for the Freedom Fighters. Me."

It wouldn't do to give the appearance of more than tripling the size of the Mobian Air Force. GUN was very touchy about losing the only real edge it had over the Mobians: their technological superiority and skilled navy. It wasn't just a matter of security. It was a matter of pride.

"Hmm..." Brin seemed mostly mollified.

"My only goal is to crush the Eggman," Miles reminded them. "I have no beef with GUN. What you and the Kingdom do after the war is none of my concern anymore... so long as it does not interfere with my research or my work."

"Very well. Aya, this is a situation we cannot let pass by. How are things going on your end?"

Captain Florentine nodded, agreeing. "My engineers and Miles'… things… have almost finished installing the new boost drive. If it works as advertised, we should be underway in two hours."

"It's the same drive I have on the Blue Typhoon," Miles spoke up. "Except for the dead man's switch, of course. The Emerald powering it is still mine, after all."

"Once again, I must protest..."

"It's fine, Brin," Aya interrupted. "We need it to get the ship running in time to fight. It can fall to pieces as far as I care, just as long as it does so after we win. Defeating the Empire is our number one priority."

The bureaucrat grunted angrily.

"As I explained before, I will be transferring some security personnel and other necessary things with me when I come over," Miles reminded them both. "I don't want anyone tampering with the drives themselves. I will remain in command of my personal fleet but will gladly leave overall command to Captain Florentine."

"Yes. We'll play along for the time being." Aya cupped her chin. "What's this new information you promised us? You said you know what Julian was up to."

"Oh yes, he's been quite busy," Miles then added, just to be clear, "You should know I'm patching in an AI named Nicole into our conversation now. She, in turn, will be patching it through to certain Mobian authorities."

"The Kingdom?" Aya asked. "I thought..."

"As I said, I no longer work for them. However, this information isn't just for GUN's benefit." Miles rocked back on his heels. "We should all know what we have to look forward to in Robotropolis..."

* * *

"What on Mobius?"

Charles Hedgehog always liked to think of himself as well informed. He liked to think of himself as well prepared. Well over a years ago, he had resigned himself to a fate of permanent roboticization. He, like many others, could not be conventionally de-roboticized, due to the length of time they had spent in that state. In a way, it was ironic and all too fitting a fate for the Mobian responsible for unleashing the plague of roboticization on the world in the first place. Unsurprisingly, he'd come to develop a rather dour and silently pessimistic opinion of things.

He tried to keep the appearance of high spirits when his nephew and others came to visit, but it was only skin deep (or what passed for it, anyway). Discovering he had an illegitimate child… discovering that his son (his son!) had grown up not knowing his father, only to find out what he had become, mistaking him for the very enemy he had grown up fighting… it had hurt him more than anything. Rush Hedgehog was his son by blood only – a blood that no longer flowed through the body of Sir Charles Hedgehog. A blood that never would.

It seemed, at times, that everything he had wanted to be, everything thing he had ever wanted, he had failed to protect. Failed to hold on to. He had failed his King, failed his country, failed his people and now… he'd failed his son. He couldn't even remember the woman he'd had that one night stand with. Rush had asked, during one of the few conversations they had had, what his real mother's name was.

Charles told him he didn't know.

Just a red headed lab assistant.

Just some lay.

No: Charles Hedgehog hadn't been happy for a long time. But he did what he could, with what little he had left, to make a good end of himself. To put himself to a noble purpose – to aid in any way he could the salvation of the Mobian race and the liberation and restoration of the Acorn Kingdom he had doomed so many years ago. He had known about the danger, and disregarded it… But now… As the ground shook beneath his feet, he realized something new.

He really didn't want to die.

Not yet.

Almost losing his footing, the robian quickly leaned against a nearby wall to steady himself. In his free hand, he held tightly to the small scanning device, and pulled it in close to make sure it wouldn't slip out of his robotic hands. A cloud of dust and smoke seemed to be rising from the location of Robotropolis, and with it, the ground around the city was giving way and collapsing inward.

Charles Hedgehog felt the tremor lessen for all of a second, before starting up again, worse than before. Even as far from the city as he was, very nearly bordering The Ring, it seemed as if the world was coming to an end. But… this was no earthquake.

It was almost like something was…

The robian cursed and scrambled into open ground, as parts of the nearby wall began to rain down. Then, suddenly, and with a resounding crash, the ground itself seemed to lurch, and Charles stumbled badly, falling forward and onto his side. Rolling as his shoulder hit the hard pavement, he looked up and in the direction of the explosion.

It wasn't an explosion; something was rising out of the ground.

Charles gasped, though his robot body never actually took in air, and watched as the slightly curved spire ascended – a hundred feet, and then a hundred more, widening as it appeared out of the ground almost a mile away. Over the horizon of old buildings and ruins, Charles could see another one, farther off, also rising into the air. Then, looking over his right shoulder, he saw one, and then another, rising from behind the cover of a building. Then, they stopped.

"W… what…?"

Before he could ask any more, one last massive crash shook the ground. Crab-crawling backward, Charles avoided more falling debris, as the weak old buildings fell apart, the strain of staying in one piece too much under these conditions. The massive spires, each seemingly more than a mile from the others, then continued their steady rise. Except, after that last crash, the quakes were completely gone. Slowly, Charles got to his feet, curiosity demanding a better look.

He watched, in stunned detachment, as other buildings started to rise up. They were those at the core of Robotnik's city. They were the blocks of metal and mortar and glass that housed his most essential manufacturing and administration systems. Finally, coming up over the rise of the obscuring ruins, Charles saw a wall of dark brown, interspersed occasionally by shimmering silver – metal, catching the light. Looking up as it rose, higher and higher, it took the genius engineer only a few amazed sections to realize what it was.

A whole section of the city… was…

"By the Source…"

The brown and black wall began to taper, and then it became jagged. Still it ascended, higher into the air in total defiance of gravity. Bits of rock and dust snowed down, and Charles instinctively shielded his robotic eyes as a small cloud of debris dusted past him. Looking back up, he could see that the piece of the city no longer had any attachment to the ground… it was floating. Robotnick had detached the greater part of the city of Robotropolis and used it to create an artificial island.

A Floating City.

Framed by the four massive spires that curved, like teeth, inward, the circular Floating City hovered for a moment over the land that had so dramatically birthed it. Narrowing his vision, Charles could see, more clearly now, the details of it. There seemed to be pieces only partially completed, where scaffolding was still firmly attached and piping was exposed. Slowly, the whole thing began to move, and rotate, and the former hedgehog tried to get a measure of the scale of this thing. It had to be at least a two kilometers, maybe three in diameter… The main spires towering well over five hundred meters high. He could also see, just barely, smaller spires, curved outward, deeper in the Floating City itself, rising above the normal buildings.

"Incredible…!" Charles said, as the Floating City revealed that it was something more. As it began to move, in a set direction, the robian knew it wasn't just a Floating City.

It was a Flying City.

At a leisurely pace, the vast bulk began its migration north.

Turning away from the sight, Charles Hedgehog ran. He would send a burst signal to Knothole and then head over in person. They had thought that Robotnik would need, or at least wait, until he had all seven Chaos Emeralds before making his move. It now was obvious they'd been overly optimistic with that particular policy.

As he ran, a nagging thought came to Charles hedgehog's mind. The streets were completely empty. There wasn't so much as a Spyeye or hover-type badnick in sight. Eggman had abandoned The Ring… what was left of it anyway. No: after almost a year of playing coy, after almost a year of building and preparation, Robotnik was once again on the warpath, and he was bringing every weapon, every resource, to bear.

And, with this Flying Island, he'd be fully capable of going anywhere.

Striking anywhere.


	32. Countdown to Extinction ii

Sonic had never been so angry in his life.

Standing back, he watched as the echidna Hazmat team ran past towards the infected site. From the start, he had suspected that Eggman was up to something with this whole "cease fire" and "repatriate the robians" thing. As always, he left the peculiars to Sally, and mostly just spent the time on Angel Island relaxing and catching up with some of his friends. If and when trouble started up again, and everyone knew it would, then things would just go back to normal.

He'd been hanging out with Knuckles and Julie-Su when he'd gotten word of an attack and that Sally was being tested for poison. Rushing over at top speed, he learned what had happened: apparently Snively had bailed on the conference without warning, and his escorts had made some kind of suicide attack on the Mobian delegation. Geoffrey's men had been on the ball and prevented the robot attackers from getting to the Prince or Princess, but during the firefight, some sort of chemical agent had been released into the air.

Dozens were dead.

"I'm sure she's fine." Standing next to him, Knuckles cupped his right hand in his left and cracked his knuckles threateningly. "Let's go make sure."

Echidnapolis security was all over the place, herding the wounded and sick into makeshift plastic tents for treatment and isolation. Sonic saw two guards in yellow hazmat suits escorting a sick noblewoman, a female of the same base breed as Sally, into a tent. Blood was running down her throat from her mouth and nose, covering her courtly dress. She had her hands over her eyes, sobbing softly. It was a wrenching sight, and not just because of her passing similarity to a certain Princess.

"Hemoptysis," Julie-Su said, walking alongside the two boys. The light colored female echidna frowned at what she saw, anger lit up behind her eyes. "Chemical burns in the lungs and eyes. This is... monstrous."

"Eggman used a number of chemical defoliants back when he first attacked the island," Knuckles added, fists clenched. "Most didn't actually kill plants. He used them to thin out the panicked wildlife while he burned the forests."

"I don't care what it is or what it's called. Eggman's gonna pay for this!" Sonic swore, as the three approached a heavily armed group of Royal guards.

"Sorry sir," one of the four on duty began to say. "We're on lockdown, so..."

"We're going to see Sally," Knuckles growled.

Sonic glared at the guard with light jade eyes.

The guards exchanged worried looks.

"Sir..." the one from before started.

"It's alright, let them though."

Geoffrey St. John had one arm in a sling, the other calmly poised near the pistol that hung by his right hip. The top half of his secret service uniform had been removed to allow for the splint and bandages, leaving him with just the black pants and formerly white shirt. The four guards immediately saluted and stood aside.

"This way," the skunk said, motioning the three to follow him into the compound. None of them missed the scowl that graced the royalist's face.

"Thanks, Geoff, I - "

"Don't thank me," he cut Sonic off. "How was the... arcade, was it?"

All three had at least the grace to look a little ashamed.

"You tryin' to pin this on me?" Sonic asked, teeth clenched.

"I never said that," Geoff responded, getting them past another group of guards defending a makeshift wire crowd control barrier.

"You did!"

"If you want to spend your life running around and goofing off and playing games, that's your decision. I'm sure you had a great time."

Julie Su spoke up at his defense, "We couldn't have known..."

"That Sally would be poisoned? That we'd be attacked?!" St. John snarled, glancing at her over his shoulder. "Eleven of my men are dead. Twenty exposed. Source knows how many civilians got caught in the crossfire. There were maybe a hundred downwind."

"What are you saying?" Knuckles asked, getting tired of the tirade. "Spit it out already."

"I just can't help but wonder," the skunk spoke slowly, carefully looking forward. "How many mobians would be alive right now if you had been here, protecting your friend, instead of goofing off in the city."

"Maybe that's just what they wanted?" Julie Su replied, pointing out, "Maybe Snively was hoping Sonic would jump in, spin dash one of those robots, and catch this thing."

"Are you suggesting its better that eleven, maybe even thirty, good mobians die rather than..."

"No," Julie Su quickly interrupted. "I'm just saying, you don't want to play into your enemies hands, do you?"

St. John snorted, but let the subject drop.

"Sally," Sonic said, glad to move onto another topic. His normally cool and unflappable demeanor started to slip. "Sal's alright, right? She's ok?"

"The Service exists to protect the Royal Household, overtly or covertly," St. John stated plainly. "We stopped the enemy before they got near her."

"What happened, exactly?" Knuckles felt the need to ask. Angel Island was, technically, his territory and his responsibility.

Geoffrey led them past the front door of the villa reserved for the Kingdom's delegation. Everyone they passed looked nervous and ill at ease. No one except the Secret Service's most trustworthy agents patrolled the halls.

"That bastard Snively bailed on the conference in secret. We caught wind of him leaving just as the plot itself unfolded," the skunk explained. "They used a robian to try and get in and see the Princess, claiming he was Snively's personal physician. My men refused to let him past the first gate. Before we knew it, we were under attack. They managed to break through to the inner perimeter before we cut them down."

"The robian had the gas with him?" Julie asked.

St. John nodded in confirmation. "He did. It was hidden on him. A stray shot must've triggered something. In seconds, the whole courtyard was... it was bad. We managed to keep things under control. You probably don't know about this... any of you..."

"About what?" Knuckles prompted.

"There's trouble on the mainland. Knothole's been attacked."

Sonic sucked in a sharp breath. "What?"

St. John motioned for him to keep his voice down. "It was Shadow. He attacked the Shield Vault and took the Chaos Emerald. Probably a coordinated strike to go along with this gas attack. Two of your friends have been hurt."

"Antoine and Bunnie," Knuckles guessed. "So much for the peace process."

"Does Sal know?" Sonic asked, but by his tone he had already guessed the answer.

"No." St. John sighed. "I'd rather not tell her now, either. The doctors say she'll be fine, but that doesn't mean she's in a condition to hear this kind of news."

"Is that your decision, or the King's?" Julie asked, giving the skunk a sharp glare.

St. John's good shoulder twitched. "It was my humble suggestion, and His Majesty agreed. The Prince knows."

"How's he taking it?"

"He's... a bit unsure how to proceed," Geoffrey admitted. "He has opted to remain with the Princess."

"What did Sally come down with, anyway?" Julie asked, as the four of them approached the royal quarters. "Was it really poison?"

"Yes. Food poisoning." St. John paused, before elaborating. "A fairly mild case, actually. As I said, not life threatening, just... rather unpleasant."

Knuckles sighed in relief. Sonic likewise let out a quick breath.

"Convenient," Julie observed. "To get it at a time like this."

"I thought so as well," Geoffrey agreed, nodding to the ex-Dark Legionnaire. "I wouldn't be surprised if it was an inside job; an excuse to get her out of harm's way. We're still investigating."

He stopped them at the door.

"Remember," he said. "She's still sick. I'd appreciate it if you helped her recover, rather than burden her with stress she doesn't need. There's nothing she can do about it right now anyway. The King is assuming control of the situation."

Knuckles crossed his arms definitely, but agreed. "Fine."

"I won't say anything," Julie promised.

Sonic grumbled, but eventually gave a small nod.

"Good," St. John opened the door, and they filed in. The Princess' eyes lit up at seeing them, and she got all of halfway off her bed before clutching her stomach and groaning. Sonic and Knuckles immediately ran over to comfort her, but Julie hung back, keeping an eye on St. John and his guards. She looked from one to another, and tried to remember the faces of some that she had met.

The Dark Legion had experience in infiltration and covert ops of this nature. Not every Grand Master preferred the "brute force" approach to influencing policy. Very likely - _very likely_ - someone close to the Princess had poisoned her. Either it was a botched attempt as an assassination by someone with a personal grudge and no experience (highly unlikely), or it was an agent working for someone or some group who suspected Sally was in danger.

She would have to keep a sharp eye out.

* * *

The Fiona gynoid watched as Sonic, Knuckles and his ex-Dark Legion girlfriend walked past her and into the villa. It seemed unlikely that any of them, even the sharp eyed girl, could have noticed her. Even if they had, there would have been no recognition there. Not a one of them knew about her existence, not even the Princess who she had met before right before the Downunda Expedition. No: she was a ghost with many faces.

The mission had been easy enough, though not really her preference.

She had been built for seduction and assassination after all. Miles' reprogramming had freed her of the compulsion to engage in those activities, but she still possessed an appreciation and enjoyment of them. Sadly, he hadn't let her assassinate a single man or woman since her reactivation. Spying and flying were fun, but did get dull after a while.

Adjusting her Secret Service uniform, Fiona 2.0 blended back into the background. Perhaps there would be time for some excitement... later...

* * *

"As you can all see, the object is heading north-northeast at roughly one hundred and eighty kilometers per hour at an altitude of around a thousand meters." Rotor stood before the assembly, dwarfed not in size by the image behind him, but by the enormity of the situation. Projected on a large screen behind the master mechanic was a detailed picture of a circular object, textured with square and rectangular indentations. Beneath it, a trailing edge of the Great Forest stood in stark contrast.

"When was this taken?" A mobian spoke up from his seat in the conference room, referring of course to the picture. He was of the somewhat rare porcine breed, and he had the distinction of being one of the very few Freedom Fighters (though only a Substitute FF in his case) to retire from service and enter politics. Hamlin had the dubious distinction of being the elected speaker for the Assembly of Nobles that theoretically ran Knothole.

His voice was unsure and betrayed his inexperience with situations like the kind they'd all been thrown into.

"Initial reconnaissance was conducted by Sir Charles, these images were taken by elements of the MAF advanced seventh recon unit, located within The Ring." Nicole-Knothole was also present in holographic form. Her expression was serious, as always, from where she stood next to Rotor.

"This picture was taken by one of our satellites an hour ago." Rotor continued from before Hamlin has interrupted him, "Unfortunately, relaying the information revealed its position and it was destroyed soon after by anti-satellite interceptors. The uplink relay on Mount Sandoval was also targeted by kinetic impactors."

"Where is it heading?" King Max who asked the question, present only via video screen. The King had taken up residence in a secure and hidden facility and had no intention of venturing outside it.

"We know Knothole has been compromised," the monarch continued. "Sonic is still on Angel Island and that damned boy has disappeared!"

"Actually," Nicole stepped in there. " Nicole-Typhoon has received several coded data-bursts from Tails over the last half hour. She had passed these on to me."

Max was, as one would expect, still livid. "Why haven't I heard of this? Where has he been, damn him?!"

Nicole closed her eyes, as if relaying the information was uncomfortable.

"The data packets were time encoded. Rotor here is the only living mobian who understands my code as well as Tails. He knew exactly how to relay it and ensure that it remained encrypted. Much of the information pertains to this weapons system. It would seem he left to pursue an independent investigation."

Rotor shook his head. "Reckless...!"

"I have integrated the information into our existing database," Nicole concluded.

Additional layers of schematics and other data layered over the display of the flying city. Datapoints highlighted sections critical to the maintenance of flight and stability, reinforced sections, and weapons emplacements.

"Summarize it for us," King Max's Minister of War, a vulpine noble by the name of Duncan Menthe, spoke by video alongside his monarch. "Is there some sort of weak spot we can strike?"

Nicole paused, triple checking.

"No," she responded with an even, dulcet tone of voice. "According to my analysis of the data, Robotnik has not just created a flying city, as Angel Island is a flying island. It appears to be a giant, integrated, and entirely self contained weapons system. The city shield has been modified: instead of a hemispherical shield, as Knothole had, this one is spherical and far more powerful than anything I have on record."

"How much more powerful?" Rotor asked, checking a tablet in his hand for the information even as he asked it. "Oh." He found it. "Oh dear."

"The shield is designed to repulse Super-class entities," Nicole explained for those unable (or unwilling) to look it up. "Once it has all seven chaos emeralds powering it, it will be beyond our ability to damage it using conventional weaponry. At present, Fleet assets may be able to weaken the shield sufficiently to allow shield breakers to land in the city."

"Normally, shields of this size and power are tangible and cannot be physically moved through," Rotor clarified. "They're a physical barrier. However, when you damage the shield in any area, it weakens it across the entire projected surface. This is why some cities, like Echidnapolis, have multiple overlapping generators. If we can damage this shield, it will become thin enough that an especially hardened vehicle can slip through."

"There is more," Nicole added after Rotor finished. "We were unable to verify this with the other sources of information, but one of the encrypted packets from Tails indicates a weapons system integrated into the shield itself. Currently, the nature of this is unknown."

"You mean a weapon that can fire through a tangible shield, as you called it?" Minister of War Menthe sounded unconvinced. "That's impossible. Shields aren't one way only."

"You're right, Minister," Rotor replied, nodding. As Acting Minister of Technology, due to Sir Charles being in self imposed exile, he felt no need to be too formal with the man. "Normally, a shield has to stutter on and off for weapons to go through it. If this information is accurate, the shield itself doubles as some sort of weapon. I... I don't know how it would do that, myself."

"It also implies that Robotnik may have a weapon that entirely ignores shielding as we know it," Nicole provided.

"So what can we do?" Max asked, but coughed and corrected himself. "Rather: what do you recommend? And where is this monstrosity headed?"

"Nicole-Typhoon and Fleet Intel believe it is set to rendezvous with the Western and Southern Egg Air Armada," Nicole answered.

With a gesture, the display changed to a topographical overview of Eastern Mobius Major, centered around what had once been Robotropolis. It now showed a massive crater where the city had once been. A giant disk was moving steadily north, and groups of smaller dots in the east and west were on projected paths to intercept it.

"It is very likely, given the heading, that the Combined Fleets intend to meet up here." A bright red dot highlighted on the map. "Starlight City.'

"That place again," Hamlin grumbled, making no real contribution to the discussion. "Why there?"

"Starlight is Eggman's most important base in the region," Rotor guessed. "He'll either want to secure it from above or replenish his forces by simply airlifting them. Many of our forces are still based around the original city encirclement. They could be his first target."

"Much of our data also indicates that the flying city is launching in an incomplete state." Nicole then speculated, "The peace initiative was launched when we threatened to cut Robotropolis off from the power plants of Starlight City. It is highly probable that Robotnik intended to use the city to circumnavigate the use of the two Chaos Emeralds he could not otherwise obtain."

Rotor nodded in agreement. "We know how to artificially generate chaos energy from electricity and vice versa. The power output of a city like Starlight, over a long enough period of time, really could take the place of a Chaos Emerald. This would also explain why so much power was leaving Starlight, while reports indicated Robotropolis and the Empire's war machine was still starved for power. It was all going into jump starting the Chaos Emeralds."

"Hmm. I've also heard some rumors about the GUN Fleet pulling off a victory in the East," Minister Menthe speculated. "If that's true, then reinforcing Starlight will also force the humans into an early fight with what's left of their fleet. What sort of conventional weapons does this thing have? We'll need to know that before we decide to commit the Army or Fleet."

Rotor nodded, and the projection displayed a closer overhead look of the Floating City. "I've already given you all the dimensions of what we're dealing with here. Previous intelligence reports confirm a large number of pre-existing missile batteries in that part of the city, possibly up to eighty. In terms of new weapon emplacements, however, we have not detected anything suspicious. However, this analysis was visual, and open to subjective criticism. Our current conclusion is that the city is mostly functioning as a sort of air carrier."

"The Air Carrier concept is hardly new for Eggman." Nicole jumped in. "The fact that he would devote so many resources on this instead of rebuilding weapons like the Flying Battery or another Egg Carrier corroborates speculation that there is a 'doomsday device' of some kind involved."

"What about those pylons?" Max asked. "Those weren't there before."

"They don't appear to house weapons of any kind," Rotor answered, not sure whether to sound happy or sad about the discovery. "They may be conduits for the power of the Chaos Emeralds, and thus have a function in steering the city."

"Aside from the city's defenses, there are also mechanized defenses to consider. An estimated five to six thousand Combot type robots, as many as two thousand of the old Swatbot type robots, several air wings of aerial badnicks, in several varieties, likely numbering just over a thousand, and half that number of the ED-series of robots. Several hundred remaining Shadowbots, several hundred of the older miscellaneous robot types, ten to twenty thousand robians, and over two hundred heavily armored robot types, again of several varieties."

"That's…" Menthe started to say.

"His entire Central Army." Rotor finished his sentence. "Yes. He's recalled everything from within The Ring."

"Gentlemen," King Max asked again. "We're going around in circles now. What do you recommend? We must have a response to this! I **demand** we take immediate action! Especially after that assassination plot against my daughter and son."

The King's advisors waffled, and Nicole remained silent.

"Perhaps," Rotor suggested, when it became clear there were no other ideas, "We should attempt to gather more information on what this thing can do."

"Agreed," Menthe eagerly responded.

"Perhaps Sir Charles could…" "A recon in force could…" "A covert ops team…"

"Hello everybody!" Nicole's body suddenly flickered, the hologram morphing into that of a certain AWOL kitsune fox. Tails was seated on a too-large chair, legs crossed. The abrupt transformation quenched any further debate among the King's advisory staff.

"And an **especially** warm welcome to Doctor Robotnik," Miles said, resting his right cheek in the palm of his hand. "I'll keep this short and sweet. **I'm coming to kill you, Doctor. **I've taken over nearly half your forces and I'm coming for you. I'm not like Sonic; you won't get away this time. I won't sit back and watch as you fly off vowing revenge."

The image distorted again, showing dozens of garishly recolored Eggman airships flying in formation, flanked by swarms of automated drones and badniks. In the distance, other shapes flew on the periphery of the great fleet, sporting neutral colors. For those who with the training to identify silhouettes, they would have been clearly ID'd as ships of the GUN New Navy.

"Consider this both my declaration of war, and a way of extending an invitation I know you won't refuse. I don't care what anyone else does. My former allies in the Kingdom of Acorn can keep chatting with you if they want, hoping against hope you return their robian friends and family… the echidna can keep thinking they're safe on their little island. I don't give a damn anymore. I only ask one thing from those who fight alongside me: show no mercy. Come with no regrets. This is **My Armada**, now, and I'm going to drive it down your fat throat!"

The image turned back to Miles, sitting in his chair.

"You want the last Chaos Emerald, Eggman? Come and get it!"

And just like that, the transmission cut off, and Nicole returned to her normal self. She seemed less than pleased by the interruption, and made an obvious display of smoothing out her holographic avatar's clothes.

"How abrupt," she grumbled, and closed her eyes. "I am receiving multiple inquiries regarding the transmission."

"Sir," Minister of War Menthe began to propose, "Perhaps we can…"

Max cut him off.

"I won't be left out of the loop like this!" The King roared, slamming a fist down on his throne hard enough to shake his teleconferenced image. "Who does this damned brat think he is, declaring war all by himself? And taking MY Emeralds with him to use as bait?!"

"Nicole!" he pointed at the bemused AI hologram. "Relay message to all Army and Air Force assets: attack on all fronts! Assemble all ships around Knothole! If there's going to be a decisive battle on our own soil, the Kingdom of Acorn will not sit it out!"

King Max slammed his fist onto his throne again.

"And get a line to St. John and Angel Island. I want Sonic to head out and get back my Emerald. I don't care how! I want it done, and I want it done NOW!"

* * *

"You were aware of this?"

Eggman's voice was calm, rational, seething.

Rouge had the grace to lower her eyes. "Yes, sir."

Standing next to her, Shadow said nothing.

Robotnik let out a long, resigned sigh. The incoming communication replayed again in the background on the command center's main screen, the voice muted. For the third time, the image turned to the pirated air fleet. Anxiously brushing the long bristles of his moustache, Eggman nodded slowly to himself, his back to the offensive images. For a moment, he seemed on the verge of exploding into rage.

Then he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"I have transferred security permissions for all relevant forces in southwestern Mobius Minor," he calmly stated. "Feel free to verify them."

Rouge withdrew a small handheld computer, and did so. Within seconds, small holographic screens popped up around her. Despite the tension and urgency of the situation, she carefully checked and double checked the security routines and permissions. As an Underboss, she had administrative authority over all mechanized and allied organic forces in her area of influence.

"Everything seems to be in order," she finally decided, and closed most of the screens with simply finger gestures. "You'll excuse me for being cautious."

Eggman's fingers clenched into gloves fists.

"You knew that brat had the Seventh Emerald," he stated. Rouge nodded, looking up at the nearly eight foot tall human. Robotnik stood on an elevated dais, making him seem even taller.

"I'd been trying to locate the Kingdom of Acorn's Emeralds for some time, but had no luck. When I discovered that it was Tails who was in charge of researching and using them, I seduced him. You know that. One of the first things I learned was that he kept the Sapphire Chaos Emerald for his personal use. He was always very concerned about the Emeralds being stolen, so he moved it around as much as he could. Its last known location was a research facility west of Starlight."

"Go on," Eggman prompted; growing slightly impatient for the information he had been promised.

"Well," Rouge continued, "I looked into what he was doing with it there. Part of the reason I was able to so easily… take advantage of him was because he thought I was still working for GUN. It turned out that he had been building a chaos drive for the humans using the seventh Emerald."

"The Egg Carrier," Shadow guessed.

"Exactly," Rouge replied, giving Shadow a quick look but focusing back on her employer. "I don't know if he was always planning on something like this, or if King Max sanctioned it. Probably not. Either way, a chaos drive using an actual Emerald could only be needed for one thing: to get something really big in the air. The crashed Egg carrier was the logical conclusion. Unfortunately, he moved the project after the Babylon Rogues attacked the facility."

"And you thought we wouldn't be able to figure this out, just by seeing the Egg Carrier up and operational again?" Robotnik asked, his voice low and dangerous.

Rouge refused to be cowed by the unspoken threat.

"With all due respect, Doctor, you know the humans have been close to getting it airborne. You also know that the humans have never replicated the construction or use of chaos drives. Would you really have investigated the ship before blowing it up?"

Robotnik plucked a long red whisker from his moustache.

"What is this brat up to?" he asked, accepting her reasoning. "Why come after me now?"

"Miles was infuriated by the pause in the war. The attack on Starlight was… well, he considered it his idea. He was the one who proposed it to the commanders in the MAF. He has always advocated fighting regardless of robian losses. Over the last two weeks, I noticed him growing more and more disenchanted with how his superiors had thrown away their chance at swiftly winning the war. I think he saw it as a personal insult."

Shadow snorted, dismissively.

"I see," was all Eggman said.

"I don't know how he managed to take over your ships," Rouge added. "I think he and GUN may have been working on this since the peace conference started up."

"You don't know for sure?" Shadow asked.

"I just slept with him; I didn't read his mind."

Eggman chuckled at that. "You see, Shadow? In some ways, humans and mobians truly are no different!"

"Hmf!" the black hedgehog crossed his arms petulantly.

"What troubles me is that we've not seen any reports of Metal Sonic," Robotnik mused, turning to look at a frozen picture of the pirated air fleet. "Something is going on in there. Why wait until now to strike?"

"When I left, he must have known…"

"No," Eggman cut Rouge off. "It isn't just that. The boy is making this into a trap of some sort. He obviously thinks that he can protect the Emerald. He wants me to come and get it because he believes he has some kind of trump card. Something besides just those stolen ships."

"Are you saying you aren't going to go after him?" Rouge asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Not like he expects," Robotnik concluded. "Shadow!"

"Doctor," the black hedgehog replied.

"I'll be relying on you to get that Chaos Emerald," the mad genius said, crossing his hands behind his wide back. "Be prepared for anything."

"Will Rouge be coming with me…?"

Eggman considered it for a moment.

"I don't exactly enjoy risking my life," Rouge spoke up. "But if it needs to be done, I can watch his back. Besides, I think I can find the Emerald this time using my sixth sense."

"She has proven to be useful in the past," Shadow added in her defense. "I do not believe she would be a hindrance."

Coming from him, it was about as much praise as anyone (except Maria or Gerald) would get. Rouge smiled at him in thanks, and he cautiously returned the gesture. Standing with his back to them, Eggman quietly considered their suggestion.

"Very well," he finally decided. "I will leave it to you. Infiltrate the Egg Carrier while I see to the brat's hijacked airships. When we have all seven Emeralds, we'll put an end to this farce. Ah, but first..."

One of the command center airlocks opened with a hiss, and a small figure entered the room. Rouge turned and saw Snively striding into the chamber looking both angry and nervous. A thin sheen of sweat was already accumulating on his brow and trickling down to the tip of his abnormally long nose. What few hairs he had on his head looked damp and worn.

* * *

Snively hated feeling small.

More to the point, he hated feeling insignificant. Walking down the metal halls of Helios, flanked by his cordon of red schemed Combots, Colin Kintobor the Second could see his reflection in the newly laid down polished steel. Compared to the war machines that strode alongside him, he was a tiny mouse of a man. Short of stature, with a malformed face and midget-like frame…

He was nothing like his roguishly tall and strong father.

He was nothing like his beautiful sister and mother.

He was - he was a freak: a disfigured mistake of a human being – little more than a joke. He wasn't even smart enough to outshine the name and legend of his long dead Great Grandfather, much less his twisted uncle. Yet, the only thing worse than being a freak was being a failure. Hearing the soft tap-tap of his footsteps nearly droned out by the heavy footfalls of the Combots, he realized this was both the high and low point of his life.

"Snively the Great."

He whispered the phrase so softly, he was hardly sure it had even left his lips. Truthfully, at this point in things, he'd be happy to be "Snively the Alive." He'd escaped the conference at the first possible opportunity, but he suspected that his unexplained absence had made it all but impossible to successfully pull off the assassination as planned.

The RX toxin didn't work on Overlanders or humans. A braver man would have used that to good effect. He could have gotten close to the princess himself, and then used the toxin to wipe out both her and her guards. It would have been a mortal blow to the Mobian cause. Instead, he had ran for it and sent his remaining forced to try and force their way in. He had known it would fail the moment he ordered it. The whole operation was a bust.

Now he was back "home" and ready to explain why he had botched a golden opportunity to take out one of the Empire's more intractable and troublesome enemies. Luckily, he had the excuse of being told to look after his own well being first, and striking at the enemy second. Snively had always lived by that code anyway, but it was a surprise to hear his dear uncle actually affirm it.

It also made him nervous.

Robotnik wasn't normally the type to actually tell someone to be careful with their well being. He didn't care enough about anyone – perhaps even himself – to put their welfare above that of his goals. If it cost a thousand lives to make a machine, and Robotnik wanted that machine, he would forfeit those lives without a second's hesitation. Living beings were just tools to him: squishier and less reproducible than robots, but no less replaceable. Snively knew, without a doubt, that he wasn't an exception to that rule.

'What the hell is going on? Has the old man grown nostalgic?' Snively wondered, and almost laughed at the absurdity of the thought. 'No. no, of course not. He wants me around for something...'

A long time ago, Snively had looked up to his maligned uncle. The man was a genius, after all, and at that time in his life, Snively would have worked for the devil if it meant finding a way to turn against his damned father. Julian was supposed to have been Gerald reborn: a true genius among geniuses, but this time without the hapless pacifist streak. Back then, Snively had thought he and his uncle wanted the same thing: to build a new world! The enslaved Mobians and later the robots were just a means to an end. Not the end itself!

Snively clenched his fists.

'Here we go.'

The final door slid open, and Snively saw the most secure of all the rooms in the Helios construct. This was the 'nerve center,' the control room, for all the flying city's functions. Circular and four stories tall, it was a room he was familiar with. The Eggman had taken to using it even before construction had been finished, several months ago. Snively walked over and past the spot where, not so long ago, he had wailed and cried, clutching his partly roboticized shoulder.

A few nervous sweat drops dripped down his brow as he remembered the incident. Without thinking, he reached for his left arm. The flesh there was still tender and still stung sharply. Still, the lingering pain was like a drop in an ocean compared to what it had been before. What the price of his cowardice and failure had been…

_"Promise me, Snively." Robotnik had slowly dug the toes of his boot into his prone nephew's shoulder. "Swear to it!"_

_ "I - I…" Snivley remembered himself forcing the words through teeth clenched in fear and pain. "I promise! I promise, sir!"_

_ "Goooood." Robotnik had said the word so slowly, so horribly. "You've got a good head on your shoulders, Snively. I'd hate to lose you…"_

Snivley shivered, and pushed the memory away.

"Snively." That voice boomed from where Robotnik stood in his elevated platform above them. The fat man's back was turned, but he saw the entourage enter via one of the vast room's many monitors.

"Sir?" The small man looked up, and asked curiously. "I've returned. I must apologize… I was unable to remove the Princess as we had hoped. Like you said, I was looking out for my own safety and…"

"Not a problem." Robotnik returned, somewhat obliquely. "Not a problems at all. I'm not angry in the least."

"You aren't?" Snively asked, and tried not to sound too excited. It was always best to keep a neutral tone around the often-explosive Eggman. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shadow and Rouge standing side by side. The former wasn't a surprise to see, but he hadn't expected to see Rouge the Bat again. Seeing her here, and apparently in good with the Eggman, bolstered his spirits. Rouge was greedy, but reasonable. She was also smart. She had to know that, sooner or later, either they would betray Robotnik or he would betray them.

Yes: she would be willing to join him.

And he had Shadow.

Yes! Snively was certain he could, eventually, secure both mobians in his camp. With most of the robotic Underbosses off by themselves or out in the field, and a bit of Regin'a help later on, it was possible! There were only a handful of Tails Dolls here in Helios. The three of them together could take out Robotnik and divvy up the Empire themselves. Rouge being here was a very good sign! Snively was sure of it. Things were turning around in his favor!

"Snively… I would like you to speak to you of something."

From where he stood, Robotnik lifted a heavy hand, and directed his platform to lower downward. Behind him, one of the larger screens caught Snively's attention. It was a display of the area beyond Robotropolis' ruins, out towards Aquatic Ruin. The picture was one of the sea: stretching on forever, all the way to the horizon. The setting sun was half vibrant gold, half fading red. Snively watched it with a detached sort of appreciation. He had always liked the sea. It always seemed so tranquil on the surface… even as it seethed in its depths.

Still, Snively stood in silence, as his uncle descended.

"It occurs to me, Snively, that you never asked what became of your counterpart on my world."

"Sir." Snively coughed, covering his mouth, and shifted his feet nervously. This was a topic neither had brought up before. "It was never important, sir. So I never bothered to ask."

"Are you curious?"

'Yes!' His mind screamed, but his mouth said, "No, sir. That was one world. This is another."

Robotnik stepped down from his dais and Snively saw the man's face. The jaw was set, eyebrows in a half scowl. Even his deep red whiskers seemed to droop slightly. It was almost as if… he was speaking somberly. After a second, Eggman nodded slowly.

"I can see how you would want me to think that," the Doctor said, walking up to his nephew. "But you do want to know what happened to him. I can see it in your eyes."

Snively stood ramrod straight, and didn't answer.

"He died." Robotnik stated this with a small touch of emotion. "The 'Freedom Fighters' of my world caught him. Apparently there was a trial of some sort, and he was hung. From a tree… like an animal…"

Snively really didn't know whether he should have been surprised by that or not. Two years ago, after being captured, he had 'gotten off' with five hundred years to life in the Devil's Gulag. Only the relative jubilation of the mobians over the 'end of the war' and the supposed death of Robotnik had spared him from a death sentence.

Still, the image unsettled him, because it was one had had always had in the back of his mind. Even now, without trying, he could see his small body hanging from a tree, slowly waving in the breeze. Sometimes, in his nightmares, flies would be buzzing around his corpse, landing on his wide-open eyes to lay eggs that would devour his flesh. Nights like those, and he had had one just the other day, he often woke up screaming.

Wishing for…

What? Safety? Home?

Life?

Robotnik stood before him now, towering over the tiny overlander. Strangely, he then looked up, closed his eyes, smiled, and inhaled deeply. It was a strange thing to see. Snively was about to ask what was wrong, when the Eggman spoke again.

"I missed him after that."

Any words Snively had to say stuck in his throat. Had this imposter Kintobor actually said what he thought he'd heard? Against his better judgment, Snively had to know. He had to be sure!

"Sir…" He gulped, and asked. "Do you… do you mean that?"

"Yes." Robotnik opened his eyes and looked down at his quasi-nephew. "I missed him. And… I'll miss you, Snively. I'll miss you."

"Wh -- "

The small man never got the chance to finish his sentence. A large and gloved hand clamped over his mouth kept his words, and then his screams, muffled, while strong fingers wrapped around his cheeks. Powerless hands flailed, and beat on his assailant, achieving nothing. Robotnik was too strong, and in the end, he was too weak. Snively felt his feet leave the safe comfort of the floor and dangle, as the far larger man lifted him like a rag doll.

His eyes moved, desperately, like a wild creatures, from face to face, pleading for salvation. There was only one who could really help: he saw Shadow, standing mutely by Rouge, watching things with an unreadable expression. For her part, rouge was looking down at her feet, pretending not to see what was happening. As Robotnik turned, Snively's face in one large hand, the tiny human's watery eyes met those of the black hedgehog one last time. For all of a second, it looked like some glimmer of pity passed through Shadow's red eyes, but then it was gone.

Buried.

With a muffled whimper, Snively's whole body gave one less shake, and then it was still. Robotnik kept walking, holding his nephew several feet over the ground.

"Now, now, Colin… I know you're still alive. In fact, you should be happy. You are a valuable part of My World. You may well outlive us all…"

Robotnik finally came to the perfect middle of the control center of the city. At his silent command, a large cylinder raised up out of the floor. In a hollowed out recess was a small chair. Without another word, the mad doctor placed Snively's body in the recess, and held his head in place. As if in response to the presence of a warm body inside it, the cylinder began to come to life. Clamps snapped out and locked Snively's arms and legs in position, and then a thick wire snaked around his neck, and grips emerged, holding his head in place.

Only then did Robotnick release his grip.

Snively gasped for air, lips dry and lungs starved for fresh oxygen. It took a second for him to remember where he was beyond mere survival, and instinctively he struggled against the bonds that were slowly but steadily entangling him.

"Sir! Uncle Julian!" He pleaded. "Please! What's happening…what…?"

"Goodbye, Colin." Robotnik's glasses reflected the light of the room's many screens, and then the cylinder retreated into the floor, taking Snively with it. He managed one last ragged scream, before he was plunged into darkness. Alone, in that lightless void, the Great Grandson of Gerald Kintobor felt the wires begin to tighten on him, and dig into his skin. His mind raced, and that was when he realized it. The truth of it all hit him just instants before the first of many tentacle-like wires plunged up his nose, into his ears, and up the back of his head, into his brain.

"Now," Robotnick said, letting out a deep breath.

"Integration with Organic Routines Established," a voice, Snively's voice, spoke over the room's sound system. "Neural Network uplink with Helios Command System operational…."

"Yes, my dear nephew, you will always be at my side!"

Everywhere in the massive room, screens flashed in rapid succession with data and readings. Image after image processed, as the new system began to handle tasks far beyond that of its previous limits. Previously dim system panels lit up with sudden energy.

"Helios Defense and Weapons Systems are now On Line…"

"Yes! Yes!" Robotnick began to laugh, a giddy evil cackle. "Finally, the Eye of Helios has opened!"

He licked his lips, a thick tongue running over great white teeth.

"How nice that we've been given an opportunity to test it!" Eggman laughed deeply, eyes glinting in the light of a hundred displays. "Set course for Starlight City. Ready the Eclipse Chamber!"

The other entities in the room kept silent.

Standing now, alone, Shadow turned away from the screen and his eyes lingered on that spot in the center of the room. He made a mental note to never get near that spot if he could possibly avoid it. Those screams still rung in his ears, and no matter how much he willed it, they weren't going away like all the others. Worse, were the little man's eyes… eyes wet with tears and fear, Shadow had seen those eyes before.

Maria's eyes…

'Soon, Maria,' he silently vowed. 'After so many years, we will have our revenge… on this cruel and worthless world…'

"Shadow?" Rouge quietly asked, leaning in close to him.

"Yes," he agreed, heading for the exit. "Let's go."

Behind him, Rouge shuddered at what she had just witnessed.

"Don't have to tell me twice!"

* * *

Sandopolis Zone

Sixty five meters above the haunted sections of the Inner City, past layers of collapsed rock, sealed domes, and sand choked halls, the 8th Division of the 4th Army of the Dingo Hegemony made camp around an artificial oasis. Like the ruined city, now less than a shadow of its former self, the Hegemony was also less than a shadow of its once great glory. Nearly eighty percent of its population had been lost when the New City's dimensional pocket collapsed. Where once the dingo had a quarter million men in arms, and eight times that number in reserves, the reconstructed Army of the present could barely muster a handful of partial-strength Divisions.

Dry wind blew in from the east, wiping up the flaps of tents and the eaves guarding the entrances to makeshift barracks. The more fortunate officers and enlisted men were able to bunk down under the cover of the ruins: the desert was strewn with them. In a few cases, some had provided breakers against the cruel desert weather, allowing water to accumulate and plants to flourish.

Centuries ago, this had been the Third Fane of Rhadamanthus, part of a larger city-wide Temple Complex. The Sacred Circle was now a large watering hole, and a refuge from the inhospitable dunes of the desert sea. Tanned hides, cut from a local species of giant sandworm, hung beside tattered but still proud banners of the once great Hegemony.

It was here that, outside a simple officer's tent, Helmut von Stryker waited for news. Robust even by dingo standards, the scarred mobian stood almost as tall as an overlander, and just as wide. Looking out over the neat lines and strict order of the encampment, past the men at work and the tarps draped over salvaged war machines, Stryker took a short swing from his canteen.

They couldn't stay here.

Not much longer anyway. Over the last two years, the terrible truth had begun to dawn on him, even through all his pride and stubborn determination. The dingo would not be able to reclaim Angel Island. Not in his generation. Not in his lifetime. Perhaps not even in his grandson's lifetime. They had simply lost too much, too quickly, too abruptly. The old leaders were gone, lost with New Dingo City, and any rational man could only be left to conclude that the dingo, as a race, had to adapt and find new ways or die out in this sand blasted wasteland.

Stryker had already taken steps to see that the dingo, as a race, survived. Even if they lost their dreams, even if they lost the island, they would survive. And one day… far in the future, they would return and take back all that they had been forced to leave behind. Until that time, they would simply have to endure. Elsewhere.

The migration had already begun in earnest, more than a year ago.

The hardiest of them, the pioneers, went first. Then the soldiers, to secure safe areas for the civilians. Very soon, the last of the un-enlisted would be shipped out to the New Territories, leaving only the Island Garrisons behind in Sandopolis. It was for that purpose – survival – that Stryker waited.

"Sir!" another dingo, smaller in stature but with an officer's cap shielding his eyes, ran up from the shade of a nearby tent. "The signal…"

"Was genuine?"

"Yes, sir," the officer agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "The boys in the field were able to take control of an enemy detachment via remote. Our techs believe the access codes can open up the entire continent to us without firing another shot."

Stryker nodded, his sand beaten cloak catching a warm breeze.

"So," he mused. "They actually came through. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since it is those two, of all mobians."

"Sir?"

Stryker shook his head, focusing on the here and now. "Looks like we're headed out for one last war, lieutenant. It should be interesting. I've never even been there…"

Ice blue eyes shone with the promise of a new battleground.

"Knothole, that is."


	33. Countdown to Extinction iii

"Excuse me, but just what are you doing?"

Lara-Su glanced over her shoulder, behind the large throw pillow she currently found herself lounging on. It wasn't actually a throw pillow, but it was fancy looking and comfy enough to suffice. Popping a sweet flavored honey cake into her mouth, she munched on it quite happily, doing nothing more than waving quietly to the man standing behind her.

Merlin, ageless though he was, seemed well able to contain his shock at seeing a stranger intruding on his Outer Sanctum. It was simply not a place one would stumble upon or even break into. It was a dimensional construct located deep within the infinite vortexes of the Chaos Force.

"Hope ya don't mind, but I let myself in," Lara remarked, going back to staring at one of his scrying mirrors. It was one of only three Silver Speculum in existence; each one individually older than any modern civilization. The surface of the mirror was actually composed of an ever-shifting pool of mercury. Lara was snapping her fingers, clicking past one image after another like it was a TV.

Merlin glared at the girl as she nibbled on another honey cake.

"Would you mind not eating those?" he asked, reigning in his temper.

"What? These?" Lara slid the oval cake into her mouth and happily chewed away at it. "But they're sooo good!"

Merlin stared at her impassively.

"That may be so," he admitted, slowly blinking and letting out a weary sigh. "However, you are aware that you are eating the preserved remains of the Great Fire Ant Statesman and Philosopher, Epaminondas, yes? The one you may have read about in grade school?"

Lara stared at him for a few seconds, as if to ask: 'Really? You expect me to fall for that?'

He nodded once.

Slowly lifting the lid of the "tin" she had found the sweets in, Lara noticed tiny writing all around the sides. Inadvertently swallowing what was left in her mouth, she carefully closed the "tin" and handed it over.

"There's… still some left…"

Merlin's left eye twitched.

"Just sayin'" Lara stuck out her tongue and groaned. "Gross. I should've known you'd keep weird stuff like that lying around."

"Lara-Su," Merlin said, ignoring her transgressions against the long deceased for the time being (and carefully placing the formerly sealed tomb of Epaminondas onto a nearby shelf). "You shouldn't be here."

"What? Shouldn't be here, as in, in the past? Or here, as in, in your living room?"

"Annoying girl," Merlin growled, sitting cross legged on the floor near her. "If you know enough to get here, you must know who I am. I do not recognize the Emerald you carry within you, so I would guess that you are from an immediate future, where I have succeeded in creating another Chosen One, but where that Chosen One has not yet finished my Great Work."

"Right as always, old man," Lara admitted, bowing her head to him in imitation respect. "Some 'Great Work' you laid out for us, though. More like 'great punishment' or something."

"Great Work is never easy, and seldom pleasant."

"I know. You've said it before… I mean you'll say it again." Lara groaned and rolled her eyes. "Man, I hate time travel! Anyway: you know who I am and you know why I'm here, right?"

Merlin cupped his hands in his lap. "You are the second Lara-Su to time travel into the past, so yes, I know who you are. I did not know you had an Emerald from a future dimension until just now. Your power has always clouded my sight, wreathed as it is by previously unknown energies. I assume they derive from the boy, Miles."

Lara nodded. That wouldn't be much of a secret by this point in time.

"You must be either the first or the last he saw fit to bless with an Emerald," Merlin speculated. "The latter seems obvious: you are from roughly two decades in the future, while Miles will reach his Time of Becoming within one or two years. However, it is also possible that you will be the first he gives an Emerald to, if you become the center of another temporal paradox."

Lara smirked at his (accurate) reasoning. "Should I say which one it is?"

"No need," Merlin replied, smiling a bit now. "I have foreseen all these eventualities."

"Didn't foresee me eating poor old Epanomidas or whatever his name was…"

Merlin gave her a slightly vexed stare.

"Why do you think you are here, Lara-Su?"

"First tell me why you didn't contact me before?"

Merlin cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Why would I feel the need to?"

Lara glared at him, mouth agape. "I'm from the future. The future! I could have… could have…!"

"But you didn't," he observed. "Just as I knew you wouldn't. Though I will admit that you coming here was a surprise."

Lara tried for a few more seconds to think up a counter argument before giving up. "Fine. Fine. The creepy old man is always right. I've learned my lesson. Don't think I'll forget all this trouble, though."

"Don't think I will forget either, child," Merlin's calm demeanor took on a decidedly malevolent shade. Lara sighed, resisting the impulse to be brow beaten by the ancient master. Luckily, exposure in the future had taught her that he wasn't omnipotent by any means, and she had faith that her unique status afforded her a few additional layers of insulation from his potential wrath.

"Way I figure it, I was tossed back because of someone else with a Sol Emerald," Lara explained, and tapped the small ruby embedded in her chest. "One of these babies. Something funky happened and I ended up getting sucked back here. All I know for sure is that it didn't happen on purpose, since Miles from my time didn't do it, you didn't do it in this time, and if Miles was around in the future, he wouldn't have let it happen."

Lara tapped the side of her temple as she continued, "Ok. So I get sent back here because someone's fooling around in the past, and they have a Sol Emerald. Problem is I don't know who it is. It isn't anyone **I** know who has an Emerald, so they're probably from further along in the future than I am. In fact, there are at least two of them, plus this other guy, who I just bet you'll remember: name's Mephiles."

"Ah," Merlin said with some resignation. "Him."

"Another blast from the past, huh? Just like The Devourer?"

"Thankfully not as difficult to contain."

"Let me guess: an old student of yours? Hence how he knows the time travel trick?"

Merlin rolled his eyes at her impudent tone. "At the time, Mephiles was a very promising young man…"

"Haven't you ever wondered just why all your 'prize pupils' end up crazy or evil?" Lara asked, redundantly. Of course he had, and of course he knew why.

"Regardless," Merlin didn't dignify the attempted change in topic with a response. "Yes, I know all about Mephiles. And Erazor, and the incident with Iblis, who I tried so hard to save… sadly, while curing the body is fairly simple, even I can not fix a fractured mind."

"Yeah, I heard about some of that too. So he's up and around now, you know?"

Merlin scratched his chin in thought. "I was not aware of that… I see! He is using the Sol Emerald to hide from me…"

"And he's trying to hook back up with his crazy ex girlfriend or whatever Iblis was." Lara waggled her fingers so they touched. "Merge with her or something creepy like that. Sounds like a stalker to me."

"He wishes to become Solaris," Merlin surmised. "I remember it well. It was a good plan."

Lara raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Good?"

"Well. Clever is a better word," Merlin conceded. "Then it is good that you are here. I don't dare interact with any of the Sol Emeralds directly, not without their Master present. The reaction would be… quite disastrous."

"I'll take care of it," Lara assured him. "I didn't come here hoping you'd solve everything for me with a wink of the eye and a waggle of the nose. I just want to get some information."

Merlin nodded in agreement. "Very well. You wish to know how one would go about releasing Iblis and then merging with her?"

Lara snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "Bingo!"

"Quite simple," Merlin explained. "I was loathe to try and destroy Iblis at the time. She was the first Chosen One I had tried to… coax into forming according to my designs. Instead, I arranged for her to be sealed within a prison that came to be called the Ark of the Cosmos. I then split it into five sections, and scattered them around the world. In time, they came into the safekeeping of different civilizations."

Merlin quickly realized he was rehashing ancient history, and coughed, correcting himself.

"But never mind that." He dismissed the history lesson he had already been mentally preparing to lecture. "One would first need to reassemble the Ark of the Cosmos and fuse the pieces back together. This is relatively simple: the Ark is designed to reform itself, but only in the presence of my own Chaos Energy. None of the other sets of Emeralds are compatible."

"After that, one must recover the Burning Key from its Guardian. Since you're a servant of one of my students, you must suspect what the key and the Guardian are…" Merlin trailed off.

Lara frowned. "Knowing you, the Guardian was probably some high priest or something you enslaved, and the Key is probably some innocent person you had horribly sacrificed."

Merlin scoffed at her tone of voice. "These are how our powers work."

"And this is exactly why you drive everyone insane or evil!"

"Feh," Merlin scoffed again, dismissing the argument as silly. It was simply how things were. There was no choice in the matter. "I needed a guardian who would be zealous and loyal, so I created one using the souls of the Ifrit priesthood. They volunteered for the task when it became clear that Iblis was out of control. The Key needed something more special; fortunately Iblis had a younger sister named Shahra …"

"You used this girl's little sister to imprison her?" Lara asked, very nearly shocked speechless. "You - you…!"

Merlin smirked, for once showing a hint of his true, terrible nature. "Oh, and can you say you and your Master have done no worse?"

Lara bit back a response. Echidnapolis came to mind, with all the guilt she still felt for what they had felt needed to be done. She was complicit in it, and would be until the day she died.

"I thought as much," Merlin said, seeing the pained expression on her face. "A word of advice: accept the nature of your existence. Do not fight it."

Lara glared at the ancient entity. "And here's a word of advice for you: don't expect things to go the way you want."

Merlin shrugged at that. "No matter. I needed something Iblis would not try and destroy, even in her enraged state. Shahra was the only viable option. Her soul should be sealed within a golden ring, in the same zone as the Ifrit Guardian. Only Shahra can open or repair the reassembled Ark of the Cosmos."

"What about Erazor?" Lara asked. "I found something called Erazor's Lamp had recently been sold on the black market somewhere in the Ring. I know he was involved."

"Erazor was just a pawn I used to keep Mephiles out of the way while I sealed Iblis…" Merlin paused to think about the significance of his lamp going missing. "It is possible Mephiles thinks he can use Erazor to open the Ark, but that would never work. Erazor is nothing but a powerless husk. No. Only Shahra can actually open Iblis' prison."

"Ok," Lara said, holding up her hands for him to stop. "Let's say I get back either Shahra's Ring or the Ark of the Cosmos. What then?"

"If a new Chosen One is on the horizon, I will hold onto the artifacts themselves," Merlin replied, slowly getting back up to his feet. "Only together can we fully destroy them by negating the Chaos Energies of Iblis herself."

"Another damn mess you want Miles to clean up for you…" Lara hissed.

Merlin glowered at the young echidna Guardian but walked away without giving her the courtesy of a response. Lara-Su sighed and rested her face in her hands. Ixis had been right, just like she knew he had been, and Merlin was as much of a bastard as she knew he was. Peeking out over the tips of her fingers, she stared at the shifting liquid metal of the scrying portal. Merlin was right about one thing: there was no point dwelling on the injustices of the past. She had faith that Miles would set things right in the future, which meant she had to do her part to help him.

On the scrying screen, a flash of images passed by: faces, blood, a great fleet, a battle that would scar the land. She had her work cut out for her, but so did Miles. Things were finally approaching the critical moment, when the fate of the future would be decided. Lara steeled herself, cursing her natural impulse to intervene.

She was the His First, and she was here for a reason.

Miles would have to fight his own battles.

* * *

Aya Florentine looked over the topographic projections for the upcoming battle. It was shaping up to be a real mess. Helios was slowly inching up from the south now, looming over the battlefield of Starlight City like a small moon. Around it, the Eggman had assembled a Combined Fleet composed of nearly all his remaining air assets. Initial Recon indicated at least sixteen enemy cruisers in formation and no less than sixty enemy destroyers arranged into four wings of fifteen each. A virtual blanket of drone fighters buzzed around the distant Flying City, numbering over a thousand.

Aya felt the palms of her hands grow sweaty in anticipation.

To the north, the Kingdom of Acorn was still pulling together its scattered fleet assets. Most were salvaged Eggman craft, but a few used hulls purchased from GUN under the previous administration. The _Blue Typhoon_ was the only particularly war worthy cruiser in their arsenal, in Aya's professional opinion, but they had a good number of light craft in the air, too. Airborne Warning and Control estimated they could have as many as eleven destroyers supporting their four cruisers. It was unknown whether they would actually join the fight or wait for both sides to be engaged with each other.

Aya's own forces were formed up in battle echelons behind Miles' Pirated Armada. He had his ships formed into a wide crescent, providing cover for the GUN Renmnant behind him. He had managed a real coup: twelve of the Eggman's newest fleet standard cruisers and twenty three destroyers. Added to that, there was the newly rechristened Egg Carrier: now the _Nor'easter_. Then, of course, there were the ships of the GUN Remnant, in the form of eight cruisers and ten destroyers.

Over the last few hours, even more forces had entered into the equation in the form of dozens of independent dingo mercenary companies and even a handful of Battlebird Armada vessels. Most arrived in glorified transports or light craft, nothing truly suited for proper fleet battle. Aya had them waiting as a special reserve. They would be needed, along with the Fleet's commando ships, to break through the Helios Shield once it had been taken down. Only then, with Helios crippled, could the rest of the fleet burn the whole thing down to molten slag.

It was going to be one hell of a fight, whether the Kingdom joined in or not.

"Captain!" a junior officer called from his position in one of the Flag Bridge's communication terminals. "Captain! Detecting enemy thermals. They're warming up their engines and heading our way."

"Detecting long range cruise missile salvo with drone escorts!"

"Registering enemy ECM and ECCM!"

"Status of the enemy Battlestation?"

"Stationary!"

Aya clasped her hands behind her back.

"This is it, gentlemen," she said, and raised her voice to make sure everyone on the flag bridge could hear her. "This is it. Signal the Captains! Advance to battle lines Beta-Beta-Four. For Station Square! For GUN! For Overland!"

* * *

Tails stood at the prow of the _Nor'easter_, namesakes swishing in the wind behind him. Rolling a bittersweet mint candy between his teeth, resisting the urge to bite down on it, he tried to ignore the lingering pain in his shoulders. He'd taken advantage of the GUN medical staff to make the alterations to the implants when it became clear he couldn't manage it himself like he'd originally planned. Another couple hours of rest would probably help where the application of ring based healing had failed, but there wasn't any more time.

Thirty four hours.

There was still plenty of time for the plan to work, but the effective window of opportunity was still quite narrow. There was simply no time for more rest. Things would just have to play out as fortune intended. Reaching up to the transparent red eyepiece mounted on the right side of his face, the young kitsune's eyes narrowed in recognition. All around him, the sky was dark with airships.

"I see it," he spoke into a small microphone attached to the eyepiece. "No. Do not open fire. Open the forward port shield quarter and let them land. I'll deal with it."

Aya sounded less than pleased by the order.

"I understand your concern. As I said: I'll deal with it. I'll deal with _them_."

Tails watched, arms crossed as a tiny plane weaved past swarms of drones and jet powered fighters. Naturally, Tails recognized it instantly. He would know _that_ plane in his sleep. It was the original Tornado, or what was left of it after all these years and all those times it had gotten shot down and patched up. He watched as the plane's pilot jerkily took it into a slow approach. Tails shook his head sadly: the Tornado was a gentle lady, and she needed a light touch.

Sonic was manhandling her.

"How I wish…" Tails gathered Ring energy in the palm of his right hand. Coils of it wrapped around his fingers, forming first into golden rings and then into blue and silver circuitry. Leveling his arm at the plane as it slowly eased over the tip of the _Nor'easter_'s prow, he grimaced in pain.

"How I wish I didn't have to do this," he said, and fired.

A bootleg chaos Spear – his "Ring Spear" – exploded from the palm of his hand and hit the plane right in the engine casing's weakest spot, tearing apart vulnerable fuel lines and nearly splitting the painstakingly rebuilt biplane in half. Not surprisingly, a blue blur zipped out of the wreckage before it could crash into the armored deck plate of the former Egg Carrier.

More surprisingly, the blue blur was not alone.

"Tch." Tails chomped down on the last of his mint candy. It was his favorite, too, and he'd indulged in a full roll over the last day to help relax. Now it was gone, and given the company, so was his hope for an uneventful confrontation. Sonic by himself would have been annoying, but not unexpected.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Sally made things troublesome.

The three stood on the vast deck of the flying supercarrier, glaring at their host with indignation over being shot down. They obviously didn't appreciate that he had shot them down inside the ship shield rather than letting them splatter into it, or get blown away by anti-aircraft fire and plummet more than a kilometer to the ground. If he wanted them dead, he'd have simply let Aya open fire on the slow little biplane. Well: it wasn't like everything had to go his way, now did it?

"Yo," he said, waving to his three uninvited guests.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled. "What's going on here man? We…"

"Not a step closer," Tails warned, standing impassively in one spot. "Sally's old man sent you to get my Emerald, didn't he? If that's the case, if that's why you're here, Sonic, then it'd be best not to talk like we're pals. Same goes for you, Knuckles. Though it is nice to see you again. How's Julie?"

"She's fine," Knuckles replied, dusting off his arms. It seemed he still had a few bits of the Tornado on him. "How's Rouge?"

Tails friendly smile didn't fade. "That was a bit of a low blow."

"Is _she_ the reason you did this?" Sally guessed, speaking up. She virtually had to yell to be heard over the roar of the wind. "We know she took advantage of you, Tails! What happened in Knothole wasn't your fault!"

The kitsune chuckled and shook his head.

"Sorry, 'Aunt Sally,' but it seems you've misjudged me again." He held out his hands, and coils of ring energy ran up and down his arms. "I told Rouge where the Emerald was. I wanted Shadow to take it. It **was** my fault."

Sally reeled, as if struck.

Sonic was speechless.

"Why?" Knuckles roared. "What were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking: what cowards you all were." Tails tilted his head to the side and sneered at the three of them. "You, for hiding on your precious Island. You, for agreeing to that joke of a peace conference. And even you, Sonic, for not having the courage to kill. Just. One. Man. Why did I do it? Because I knew I had to."

"T-Tails!" Sonic snarled, finally getting angry. "People are dead because of you!"

"That's true." Miles eyes were shadowed as he admitted it. "That's one hundred percent true. And more are going to die. Because of me. But I'll end the killing, too. I'll end it with one man's death. And then you three can all go home happy, and your precious hands won't be stained with blood. Isn't that what you want?"

He looked up at them, blue eyes wide.

"Isn't it what you secretly wanted all along? To win this war without compromising your principles?! To win without killing the one man you secretly feel you can't live without? I was there when Zonic said you needed an Eggman as much as Eggman needed you! Sally, I was there when you said you wanted to win the war, but only if you could win it 'right.' Knuckles, I was there when you said the safety of the Island came first!"

"Every single one of you standing here," he said, pointing from Sonic, to Sally, to Knuckles. "Is a Source cursed hypocrite! Not a single one of you has ever done anything to end this war: to really END it. Go ahead and judge me. Hate me if you want to. But keep out of my way."

Knuckles growled and tensed to attack, but Sonic held out his hand.

"Tails," he said expression and voice totally serious. "Do you mean all that?"

Miles' brows kneaded into a frown, and he nodded slowly.

"Yeah," the kitsune replied. "I do. You three are like family to me, but you've let this whole thing drag on for too long. Every one of you has lived your life by your own moral code. I'm doing the same thing right now for myself."

"Bunnie and Antoine were nearly killed!" Sally cried. "Don't you care?!"

"Of course I do," he yelled back. "But I needed Shadow to take that Emerald, and I needed Knothole to wake up and get out from under its shell. It was a mistake to have built it for you in the first place."

Sally gritted her teeth and looked away, tears in her eyes.

Tails didn't turn away from her grief.

"What's done is done. Nothing can stop what I've set in motion." Miles turned his eyes on Sonic. "Not even you. I'll ask this once: I let you land here so I could talk to you. Walk away. For the sake of all our years of friendship, walk away from this fight, Sonic."

"I…" Sonic clearly seemed to be struggling with his own feelings. "I can't! Damnit, Tails! What if Shadow gets this Emerald, too?"

Tails grin grew wide enough to show teeth.

"I dearly hope he tries!"

"You're off your rocker, kid!" Knuckles took a step forward.

"Says the guy whose been duped and mind controlled how many times?" Tails quipped back. "Yet here I am, one of your oldest friends, and you'd rather fight then trust my judgment?"

That stopped Knuckles cold.

"All I'm asking for is a little faith. Just a bit of the faith you have in each other. Just a bit of the faith you always said you had in me all along."

Sonic and Knuckles both paused, considering what the third member of the Triple Threat had said. Tails' words rung true: they had said that they trusted one another. They had said that they trusted him. For all their faults and misunderstandings, for all the fights and brawls over the years, it was true: they did trust each other with their lives, their loved ones, their hopes and their dreams for the future.

"Tails," Sally spoke now, seeing that the two others were paralyzed. "We **do** trust you. We **do**. But this isn't right. It's too risky, and… and you have to think of the big picture. Even if that conference was been a mistake, trying to save those people… it was the right thing to do. What you have to do now is work **with** us, not **against** us! You have to give us the Emerald. You have to **trust us **with the Emerald."

Tails frowned; if only Sally hadn't been here, he could probably have talked Sonic and Knuckles down. Just his luck she decided to come along. He had been hoping she was still bed ridden. Unfortunately, her words had struck a cord with both Sonic and Knuckles and it was looking like a confrontation was basically turning inevitable.

"I can't… you don't understand. I need the Emerald to stay where it is, and I can't have you three just standing around out here." He sighed. "It looks like talking isn't going to get us anywhere."

"Tails!" Sally yelled, trying again to convince him. "This doesn't…"

"**It does.**" Tails slammed his boot down on the airship's armored hull. "METAL SONIC!!"

In seconds, a hailstorm of metal erupted from armored sections within the Carrier's hull. Dozens of flying E-class badniks took to the air, painted with splashes of yellow and red and blue and black. Some landed, others hovered; all boasted a threatening assortment of ranged weaponry. Amid them, a familiar form landed at the head of the pack. Once all cobalt blue, Metal Sonic now sported a crude swirl of yellow and white over his right eye, in the form of two entwined tails, marking his subordination to a new master.

Metal Sonic's optics flared red.

"Metal Sonic Mark Four. Online." The robot turned to its master. "Priority?"

"What else?" Tails asked. "Priority One: Hedgehog."

* * *

"FIRE!"

Lances of light strobed against the blue sky, nearly lost amid the short lived tumult of hundreds of exploding missiles; dense buzzing schools of drone fighters flocked in intricate, computer controlled patterns, blossoming points of fire from laser impacts dyed the sky with red and orange. The first major causality of the collision of fleets went up with a thunderous explosion that could be seen almost over the horizon.

To Nicole-Typhoon, it was the most beautiful carnage she had ever seen.

She relayed a live stream of it to Nicole-Knothole. If her sister saw fit, and N-T guessed that she would, this was something the people of that city could do well to see. Everyone knew that the war was back on. Everyone knew that the wasted time they'd spent negotiating had given the enemy time to bolster his forces Everyone knew that, without their City Shield, they were vulnerable.

It could be useful to show them that the fight could still be won, too.

* * *

Sally didn't get involved in the fight, something for which all three of the boys were silently thankful. It wasn't that they doubted she could take care of herself, but with only a little conceit, all three felt she would have been biting off more than she could chew butting in. Sonic and Metal were just blurs of motion, clashing and crashing like cerulean waves across the surface of the Carrier.

Tails and Knuckles, in contrast, had barely moved a muscle.

"Last chance to back down, kid," Knuckles said, flexing his neck and working the kinks out of his muscles.

Tails' tails lashed behind him, eager to draw blood.

"Don't hold it against me when I beat you," the fox replied.

Knuckles smirked. Without another word, he charged in, pumping his right fist as he punched. Tails juked back, twisting and slipping away from the echidna's hammer blows with grace and ease. Standing back, Sally watched the fight with trepidation. Close combat was Knuckles specialty; his insane strength and toughness made him (arguably) one of the world's best fighters. His style was relatively simple and straightforward: hit harder, faster, and simply soak up anything your opponent threw at you.

Soon, Knuckles started using his left arm as well, jabbing at ever increasing speeds. He and Tails circled as the Guardian attacked and the kitsune evaded. This was the same tactic Sonic used in his fights with the red echidna – keep dodging, using superior speed to force his stronger opponent to overextend, and then strike. Out of habit, Knuckles kept his eyes on Tails' feet. Sonic always attacked using broad movements, utilizing his spines or his feet.

Sure enough, when Tails finally counterattacked, he did so by kicking low to the back of Knuckles' right shin, aiming to twist his hamstring. The Guardian was ready for it, drew back his foot across the metal ground, and lunged into a fight ending uppercut. Only to have Tails nimbly pivot away from the strike, grab him by the wrist and elbow, and flip him onto his back. Knuckles hit the ground with a grunt but quickly recovered, rolling to the side and back into the balls of his feet before an armor padded knee could slam into him from a prone position.

"Thinking I'll fight like Sonic is a mistake," Tails warned.

"Obviously," Knuckles agreed, raising his fists.

He took three short steps into range, and the two started fighting, this time for real. Knuckles' white gloves became a near blur as he struck, again and again, at his more agile kitsune opponent. This time, Tails did more than just dodge. Right off the bat, he lunged in, seized Knuckles by the shoulder and elbow, and tried to flip him onto his back. More prepared for a close combat throw, the echidna Guardian ducked out of the grapple and swung into a backhand. Tails dodged it by a hairsbreadth, and struck low with one of his tails. Knuckles jumped, avoiding having his knee sliced open.

For a third time, the two clashed, and Sally winced as a nearby explosion lit up the sky. This wasn't from any of the personal battles going on; this was from the escalating air war that was being waged all around them. Streams of plasma fire and the fading smoke contrails of hundreds of missiles surrounded them. Stray fire from enemies and allies alike splashed against the _Nor'easter_'s heavy duty shields. Turrets the size of houses fired nearby through momentary gaps in the shield bubble, adding a period deafening roar to the strain of the fighting around her.

Knuckles grimaced as Tails got in another clean hit, only to dance just slightly out of range of a retaliatory fist. It hurt the echidna's pride more than his body. It was an extremely rare occurrence to fight someone who could last this long in direct hand to hand, and despite Tails' warning earlier, Knuckles could help but fight the fox like he was used to fighting Sonic. Except that Tails wasn't Sonic. Sonic would bounce around, and Knuckles knew to use that as a cue to either make a counterattack or defend himself.

Tails was much harder to read.

The fox's movements were very precise, very calculated, and he attacked with six limbs instead of just two or even four. When Sonic hit you for real, usually with a spin dash or spin kick, he hit like a truck. Tails, on the other hand, seemed to prefer nipping an opponent to pieces. His tails could cut like razors through almost any defense, and while his fists and feet weren't terribly dangerous, he knew the weak spots in the Mobian body. Every single strike the kid landed was to a vulnerable spot: the kidneys, the tendons, the joints. It was like fighting a surgeon.

"Alright!" Knuckles pumped his fists and jumped back. "You asked for this!"

Punching the ground, an ever widening wave of white chaos energy rippled through the air towards the Guardian's surprised opponent. Tails' namesakes spun, propelling him backwards and out of the conflagration. Knuckles didn't give him a moment to form a counter attack. The echidna pumped his fists, building up enough energy to force it directly through the air. In moments, a similar wave propagated out from the furious series of blows.

Unable to dodge the entirety of the attack, Tails spun, and let the blast of energy hit him. Crackling chaos energy tore through some sort of bubble shield. A light orange blur corkscrewed through the air before hitting the ground and spinning like a top. After a dozen revolutions, the blur skidded to a stop. Tails' boots had left twin trails of skid marks across the metal armor of the Egg Carrier.

His tails slowly lowered to his sides.

"If I hadn't blocked that, it would've been pretty bad," the kitsune remarked, and held out his hands. Glowing ring energy collected in his palms. "Guess you're finally getting serious!"

Knuckles' response was to start pumping his fists again, working up another Knuckles Fury. This time, Tails tried to strike first, throwing what looked to be a handful of golden rings at the echidna. Knowing better than to take them at face value, Knuckles quickly directed his first Fury upwards, intercepting the projectiles. As the wave of chaos energy tore into them, each golden ring exploded with surprising and thunderous force. It was enough to knock an observing Sally, dozens of meters away, off her feet.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Knuckles roared, slamming both his fists into the floor. Two huge waves of chaos energy erupted all around him, just as Tails swept in from the side, his right arm sheathed in golden fire. The blast hit him straight on, without even his tails to protect him… except the attack seemed to pass right through the fox, as if he was made of smoke.

"What?" Knuckles asked, and instinctively looked up. Tails was above him, bootleg ring spear in hand. With a heave, the kitsune threw the golden mass of ring energy down. Knuckles, rather than try and raise his fists and block the attack, instead opened his palms and caught the spear, just behind the head. For a moment, he seemed to succeed, before the whole thing exploded around him.

Tails landed, rolled, and jumped away from the smoking point of impact. Without even a properly dramatic pause for effect, Knuckles blasted out of the smoke, his right fist leading the way. Behind him, a fading series of after images was testament to his boost in speed. Caught off guard despite his initial caution, Tails was unable to dodge as Knuckles plowed into, through, and past him.

The kitsune rolled across the metal floor before springing back onto his feet. Knuckles, too, finally skidded to a halt and pulled back his right fist. The glove was burning red. Instead, he pumped his left fist three times and shot forward like a bullet. Tails barely managed to block this strike, shielding himself with his tails. The impact left him spinning, but he managed to stay on his feet. Knuckles drew back his left hand, and pointed with his right fist, the glove now back to a normal white.

Watching with awe, Sally realized it had to be some variant on a dash attack. She had seen Sonic use something similar, except that he charged up the dash by running in place for a second. It looked like Knuckles had developed a similar move using his fists. He was literally punching so hard that it took the rest of his body along for the ride. Knowing Knuckles' insane strength, it was amazing that Tails could even find a way to block the strike.

No: watching Tails stand, somewhat unsteadily, she was certain that even using his tails, he couldn't completely block Knuckles dash attack variant (she mentally labeled it his 'Blast Claw'). It wasn't just a matter of physical force, either. Just like Tails used his tails, and Sonic used his spines, Knuckles used his punch claws. They were suffused with chaos energy, so when he struck something, it wasn't just with an absurd level of kinetic energy. Knuckles' blows could literally destroy matter on a molecular level.

"What are you waiting for, Knuckles?" Tails asked, making no effort to run or put more distance between them. It struck Sally as odd – Tails was a smart fighter. He had to have noticed that Knuckles first and second strikes covered the exact same distance, and that Knuckles traveled that distance regardless of whether he hit his target or not. The smart thing to do would be to keep out of range of the dash attack.

"You brought this on yourself!" Knuckles roared, and launched into another Blast Claw. He got almost halfway to Tails before the ground beneath him exploded and tossed him through the air.

'A trap?' Sally realized. 'He knew the attack happened only in a straight line, and put down some kind of trap or mine in front of him, knowing Knuckles would run right into it!'

"Perfect!" Tails cheered, and took off in a blast of speed. In moments he was airborne and right next to the still smoking and out of control Knuckles in midair. Holding out both hands, the kitsune's right and then left arms flared with golden ring energy.

A solid looking bubble enveloped Knuckles tumbling form.

Tails landed with his prize - one hand wiping away a trickle of blood from his nose while the right rested calmly on top of the now frozen and encapsulated Guardian of Angel Island. Within the bubble, Knuckles remained stuck, a look of surprise still on his face.

"Tails!" Sally yelled, running towards him. "What did you do?!"

"He isn't dead, if that's what you're thinking," Miles assured her, holding up a hand to keep her back. "He would have torn through a normal bubble shield like paper. However, you may recall a special anti-radiation polymer that I developed? This is a version of that, specially made for dealing with mobians like us. It will diffuse all the chaos energy in his body, rendering him harmless. After that, I'll release him to you."

The kitsune glanced down at Knuckles and then back up at her.

"Unless… you want to take a crack at me, too?" he asked, a hint of threat in his otherwise perfectly amiable tone of voice.

"There's something you should know," Sally replied, pointing at the encapsulated Knuckles.

His bubble prison was glowing white hot.

"Ah." Miles frowned. "I see. In that case…" Forming two concentric golden rings in the palm of his right hand, he slammed it down onto the face of the bubble shield. A high frequency vibration quickly built up inside, melting the special polymer material within. It was the only effective way to break down the material, and it was why he had developed the HF Ring technology in the first place, although its other combat uses were also handy.

Knuckles tore his way out of what was left of the bubble, holding a ruby red gemstone the size of a large fist in his right hand. He must have managed to retrieve it in the seconds between when the mine went off, and when Tails caught him in the bubble shield trap. Backing away, Tails watched the Super Emerald warily.

"Why did you…?" he started to ask.

"We were going to give it to you," Sally interrupted him. "Once you gave us the Mobian Chaos Emerald you have."

"Really?" Miles asked, and chuckled. Then, after a few muffled laughs, it morphed into full fledged guffaws. "Of course! Of course!"

Then, abruptly, his mood turned and he became deadly serious.

"You need to put that away and get out of here. This is actually potentially disastrous!" Touching the side of the eyepiece clipped under his ear, Tails spoke into the freshly retracted microphone. "Metal! Command Override! Target echidna! Seize that Emerald and evacuate the premises!"

"What are you…? Hey!" Knuckles never saw Metal coming. The robot was already in Phase Two, having assimilated numerous E-series mecha. Before the weakened echidna Guardian could react, a pair of silver tendrils plucked the red Super Emerald right out of his hands.

"GO!" Tails pointed off into the battlefield. "NOW! Get that out of here!"

Metal's engines flared and it shot off. Knuckles immediately jumped after it, gliding desperately to keep pace with the machine while cursing at it to bring back his Emerald. Tails watched them go with palpable relief. He barely noticed the shadow descending on him from above.

Slipping to the side, he barely avoided Sonic's spin dash from up above.

"What's wrong with you?" Sonic yelled, coming out of the spin dash to face his former sidekick and best friend. "We brought that Emerald to try and help you!"

"And I told you I don't need the help!" Tails shot back. "You guys are just going to screw everything up!"

The two former partners stared each other down, neither willing to budge.

"Sal," Sonic finally said, "Find a way inside the ship. Do your thing. I'll take care of things here."

"Cocky as usual," Tails observed with a huff. "She'd be better off out here. This ship isn't crewed by useless SWATbots or incompetent fodder."

Sally took a few hesitant steps away from the two.

Tails followed her with his eyes, but new better than to give Sonic an excuse to attack. Sighing in defeat, he ignored the Princess for the time being. It was highly unlikely she'd actually make it very far inside the ship. Much of it was still sealed off, and what was in use was heavily guarded. She wouldn't get very far. Hopefully, Aya's boys would know to follow orders and detain rather than kill the intruder.

With Sally gone, Sonic cracked his knuckles ominously.

"You sure you don't want to give up?" the blue one asked. He looked none the worse for wear despite his run in with Metal Sonic.

Miles didn't let it bother him.

"Are you sure you don't want to get the Hell off my ship?"

"You know, you're being more difficult than usual." Sonic started to pace around his former sidekick. "You really want to fight me, man? Isn't that what you had Metal Sonic for? And just how **did** you manage that, anyway?"

"A little creative reprogramming; it shouldn't be anything new to you after all these years." Tails also started to circle his old friend. "And I kept him around as insurance against a whole bunch of threats. You just happened to show up first."

"Really?"

"The world doesn't revolve around you, you know."

"It certainly seems to sometimes."

The two stopped pacing.

"So," Sonic began.

"So," Tails replied.

"No hitting below the belt?" Sonic proposed.

"No biting, either."

"No eye poking."

"Agreed." Tails then added, "No noogies or wet willies. Because I **know** you're thinking it."

Sonic smirked. "You know me."

Tails smirked right back. "I do. And I'd rather take a Chaos Spear to the face than have your spit in my ear."

"Let's see how all that junk you learned recently holds up in a real fight!" Sonic tensed, and exploded into a homing attack.

Miles' tails lashed out to meet him head on.

* * *

-----


	34. Countdown to Extinction iv

_Existence_

"Refueling and loading procedures fifty six through seventy four completed."

_I am Helios_

"Mooring clamps released."

_The Power of Chaos flows through me_

"Disruption detected in Starlight City Power Uplink."

_I am … _

"Compensating. Eclipse Chamber at ninety five percent critical mass."

_Helios_

"Secondary nuclear plants operating at ninety percent of operational maximum."

_I was …_

"Primary Chaos Siphons one through five experiencing drift permutations. Compensating."

_Pain_

"Helios." The voice of the Master calls. "There was a small spike in system lag just now."

"Acknowledged. Compensating."

Shadow's fur bristled at the computer's voice, and he silently ground his teeth together. Did it HAVE to sound like that weak human fool? Couldn't it be the usual droll synthetic voice everything else had in this place? That was only mildly annoying, but this - this sounded like a corpse trying to speak. As Robotnick continued to look over reports and screens and readouts on Helios, Shadow grew more and more…

Uncomfortable.

Worse, when the black hedgehog closed his eyes, he saw pale human eyes pleading for him to save them. Pleading for help and then turning dark with despair and death. Snively was nothing like Maria… so, Shadow wondered, why did he feel guilty about letting that evil little human go to his deserved fate? He was not beholden to him. Shadow hadn't even liked the man. Why should he care?

Why _should_ he care?

"Helios. Set course for these coordinates. Ready the Eye."

"Setting course. Siphons one through six at capacity."

Shadow clenched his fists where he stood, far below the teeming monitors and flashing lights. Far below the good Doctor Robotnik's dais, and far from where the fate of Mobius was supposedly being decided. He was isolated where he stood… except for Rouge, he was the only truly living thing for miles. If not for her, he would be alone, surrounded by the twisted fruits of Kintobor "genius."

Yes: he reflected, he was glad she was here. Not only was she of use in gathering the last of the Chaos Emeralds, but her company was valuable as well… in a different way. He had forgotten what he felt like to have a comrade in the months she had been gone. In the end, he would almost regret killing her, but it really was for the best. Like with Maria, her existence would degenerate inevitably to suffering. It was far kinder to simply end it all. Shadow only hoped Rouge didn't make that moment difficult when it finally came.

"Drain Starlight City dry if you have to, Helios! I want full power! How long before the seventh Siphon is at capacity?"

"Chamber will reach critical mass in ten minutes twenty seven seconds."

"Superb!" And then Robotnik started to laugh. "Go now, Shadow. Go! The moment you return with the Emerald, we will fire the Eye and wipe out these pathetic fools and their insignificant air fleet."

"Yes, Doctor. As you wish."

With obvious haste, Shadow headed for the command center's main blast door and stepped outside. He could feel the pulse of Chaos Energy all around him from the enslaved Chaos Emeralds. Running through the corridors towards one of the main hangars, he made his way nearly to the surface, passing by hordes of mindless, tireless, robians, and running by lines of assembled combat robots.

'Remember Maria!' he reminded himself. 'Remember your promise. Your vow! You wouldn't let me save you, Maria… You wouldn't even let me have revenge… even on those who killed you. You always did forgive too easily! You were too soft… too kind… for this cruel world… But I promise you, now as before, that you will be avenged! And no one will ever suffer again...'

"Shadow…"

The voice snapped him back to attention of the world around him, and Shadow saw Rouge readying her gear. They were going into another high risk situation, but this time Rouge came more prepared than before, with a lightly armored black catsuit. She had taken the time to stock up on a few tricks of the trade, just in case they ran into more unexpected traps or surprises.

An eerie figure floated close by. It was one of the City's Tails Dolls, unblinking black eyes always watching. Always recording.

"You are cleared to transverse the Shield," it said, in a perfectly lifeless monotone.

"Ready?" Shadow asked, directing the question to his teammate.

"Ready," Rouge confirmed, and held out her hand.

Shadow took it, and the two vanished.

* * *

Good Freaking God, Sonic was fast.

Tails eyes darted to the left and right, barely following the hedgehog's rapid movements below. Holding out one arm, he focused ring energy into his hand and mentally laid out the plans for another Ring Bomb. He'd been trying to tag his former partner in heroics for the better part of five minutes now, but Sonic was just too evasive to either hit directly or lure into a trap. It was no surprise why Eggman had so much trouble with Sonic over the years.

The blue menace was simply incredibly difficult to fight using any sort of plan. Sonic's spontaneous nature meant that he didn't always do what was logical or predictable. Half the time he acted purely on instinct, and half the time when he actually thought through what he was doing, his actual thinking was borderline insane.

Knuckles was so straightforward it had been easy to get him to run right into that Ring Mine. Tails had already seeded the surface of the Egg Carrier around them with almost a hundred of the explosives, and Sonic hadn't taken anything but a glancing blow from even one of them. Even when it wasn't necessary, he zipped around like a horsefly on crack.

Tails took an extra half second to add some surprises to his next set of Ring Bombs: small silver spheres formed on the inside of each of a half dozen rings. Sweeping his arms, the kitsune threw the freshly assembled weapons. Evasive programming embedded in the silver spheres caused the Ring Bombs to shoot off in a half dozen directions before closing in and tracking down their target.

Sonic charged right into them, curled up in a classic homing attack. Zipping and twirling around the evasive projectiles, Sonic used his homing attack to shoot from one to the next, escaping from the resulting explosion by mere heartbeats. He set off three of the six bombs when all three finally zeroed in on him and went off. Sonic vanished in a great midair blast of fire and force. Meters below, ring traps in the Carrier's hull also went off.

"So close," the kitsune hissed. "Where…?"

Tails frowned, following a high speed movement along the ground.

Intercepting the spin attack with a bubble shield, Miles used his other hand to quickly spray a cone of nanite infused polymer at his ex-mentor. Sonic bounced off the bubble shield, popping it with his chaos powered spines, before twisting and flipping through the air. Crude blocks and wedges of polymer material solidified in the air in his wake as Tails tried desperately to keep up.

'I thought the last four weeks of inactivity would have made him a bit rusty, but he's as fast as ever...!' Miles widened the cone of the polymer vapor spray in an attempt to catch the speeding blue hedgehog. 'How troublesome can you get? Has he been hoarding ring energy, too! I guess I could use _that_ move, but…'

Another abrupt homing attack slammed into one of Tails' tails, sparks shooting off from where the two chaos-empowered bodies collided. Acting quickly, Miles twisted his arm around and tried to fire a point blank Ring Spear before Sonic could break contact. In a perfect scenario, the Spear would have dazed Sonic and knocked him out of his protective spin, leaving him open for a polymer or bomb attack. Unfortunately, Sonic took that moment to Flash Shield – exciting the air around him and making himself momentarily invulnerable.

The Ring Spear washed against him and broke in half, tearing ragged gouges in the armored hull of the _Nor'easter_. Miles swiped with his tails, trying to push Sonic back, only to have the hedgehog jump up, uncurl, and descend with a heel drop. Tails quickly caught the heel with his hands, a blast of air blowing over his body and cracking the metal armor beneath his feet.

Sonic landed on his hands and began to use a familiar move: spinning upside down like an inverted top. Tails knew it well. It was one of the blue blur's favorite moves, and it almost always caught multiple enemies by surprise. Sonic's true power was always in his feet, a fact that many forgot, wagering him to be less dangerous when not tucked into a ball. Caught this close to the move, Miles also spun, tucking his tails in and forming them into blades.

The two clashed like dueling cyclones, tearing up the titanium alloyed armor beneath and around them as they moved and crashed against one another. In the distance behind them, past the _Nor'easter_'s shield, a two hundred meter long war destroyer exploded, momentarily obscuring even their fight with blinding light. Neither Tails nor Sonic paid the carnage any mind.

Finally, the two titans split, blasting away from one another before skidding to a stop. Sonic was grinning, despite the long bloody gash on his right arm that finally made it impossible to maintain his inverted spin. He tested the fingers on his hand to make sure they were all still working. Opposite the hedgehog, Tails held his side, where Sonic was she he'd broken at least one of his former sidekick's ribs.

And while he probably should have felt a bit bad about it, he didn't.

Tails was putting up one Hell of a fight.

'He was able to keep his eyes on my feet while still landing an attack with his tails?' Sonic wondered, impressed. 'I only got two clean hits in before he got through and nicked my arm. I've taken out half the Chaotix with that move… but I guess it's not a huge surprise. No one had seen my moves more times than him.'

The truth of it was that almost no one lasted very long once he got serious. Sonic knew his reputation: he was a blitzer. The only person who really lasted more than a minute or two was Robotnik, and even then only because of his genius in producing battle mechs and other hardware. Really exciting fights were hard enough to come by, but exciting fights where he didn't have to fight some psycho with world domination plans…? Where he didn't have to worry about bystanders or time limits or other distractions? Sonic could count the number of fights he'd had like that on one hand.

Sure, ol' Max wanted the Chaos Emerald back, and Sonic was inclined to prefer keeping it out of the open, too. So there was that, but it was just a minor thing. Once Metal Sonic dropped out of the picture, the fight became something much more personal and enjoyable. A part of Sonic was proud to see Tails come so far. He'd never lasted this long in their earlier fights: those had just been little tussles anyway.

This was the _real thing_, and Sonic found himself truly enjoying it.

The thrill of a good fight could only be matched by the elation of winning that fight… and then only improved by rubbing one's victory in the face of the beaten. That was just how it was. There could only be one with the title of 'greatest' – there would only be one '_fastest_,' one '_greatest_,' one '_coolest_.' It wasn't maliciousness. It was **fact**. It was the relentless drive to be the **best**.

"I'm the fastest!" Sonic repeated the mantra. "I'm the greatest! I'm the coolest! I'm…"

Running in place, he focused all his power into his feet.

"**Number Fucking One!**"

Sonic became little more than a trail of blue light: a streak along the hull of the former Egg Carrier. Tails shot back and away, cupping his hands on front of his body before drawing them apart. A golden Power Ring the diameter of his torso formed between his hands. The kitsune had only just finished forming the ring when Sonic crashed into him.

Miles could feel Sonic's blow reverberate through his body. He never saw (and never found) the tooth that first punch removed from his skull. Rocketing through the air, he was intercepted by another maximum burn spin dash that had already curved around half the prow of the Carrier. Sonic hammered into his former sidekick a second time, bouncing him like a pinball in another direction. A third, then forth, then fifth time, Sonic plowed into Tails, sending him careening off and into one of the Carrier's armored weapons turrets.

The twelve inch thick armor caved in from the impact.

Sonic uncurled and landed just feet away, breathing heavily. Still buried in a shallow crater punched into the armored turret, a small orange ball slowly removed itself from the indentation and fell to the floor. After a few seconds, an arm emerged from within the ball, followed by a leg and then another arm. Finally, Miles' tails uncurled from their protective sphere around him. On hands and knees, he coughed blood and glared up at his ex mentor.

"An instantaneous conversion of energy into momentum, otherwise known as a Spin Dash," he managed to say, between breaths. "I… I really need to work on mine…"

"Huh! Looks like you're pretty much done," Sonic observed, and shrugged with a smile. "Well, it was nice while it lasted, but against me, what do you expect? I am the best after all!"

Sonic turned to walk away when he paused and looked down at his feet.

Everything looked fine but –

"I can't move?" Sonic tried to lift his leg, but it wouldn't budge. "What the…?"

"Your acceleration."

"Huh?" Sonic looked down at the still prone Tails. "Acceleration? What?"

Miles rolled to the side and fell back, so he could lean against the damaged turret behind him. Running his tongue over the new gap in his teeth, he snorted and spat a wad of spit and blood to the side. He didn't make any more effort to get up or stand.

"I've taken it away," he replied, letting out a sigh and resting his head against the metal behind him. "Your ability to accelerate, that is. You won't move from that spot."

"Like Hell I won't!" Sonic grunted as he tried to move his legs again. "Hey, what is this?!"

Tails smiled tiredly.

"When you came at me that first time… I was ready. That ring I made – the big one – you remember what happened to it?"

Sonic did. "You tried to block me with it at the last second…"

"It was full of programmed nanites," Tails explained. "Most of them were destroyed by your spin, but I know the one vulnerable body part of yours when you curl up like that: your feet."

Sonic stared at his shoes. They looked fine, and his feet didn't hurt either.

"Your shoes, actually," Tails continued, pointing at Sonic's distinctive red and white colored sneakers. "Right now, they're molecularly bonded to the armor of this ship."

"So it's like mega-muck or something?" Sonic scoffed. "I'll just…"

"I know exactly how your powers work. This isn't like someone using glue to keep you in place. You can't spin or dash your way out of it and you won't be able to get the shoes off, either," Tails explained. "Let me make this clear: you and the _Nor'easter_ are now functionally one entity. _Sonic, you can no more move your feet than you can move this entire eighty thousand ton battleship._"

Sonic stared at the fox for a few seconds.

"You can keep trying if you don't believe me," Tails concluded, taking another long drawn out sigh. "I can't believe you knocked out one of my teeth."

"Yeah, well, I think you got the better deal out of the two of us!" The blue hedgehog complained, continuing to struggle. "Seriously, what the Hell, man?! I can't even get out of my shoes?"

"Of course not," Tails replied, rolling his eyes. "Just stop fighting for a minute and calm down. I need a minute to think about how I'm getting you out of here."

"You don't even know how to get me free?!"

"I, uh… well, I didn't have time to think about it."

"What if I'm stuck like this?!"

"I told you not to get involved!"

Sonic's eyes widened as he imagined life stuck where he was. No running. No jumping. No smashing things!!! He let out a low moan of despair. It was worse than death! Even if he lived, he'd have to get married here, raise a family here, play old-man Bridge here! It would actually be a bit like living rooted to the couch.

Oh god. Amy would finally be able to _catch_ him.

"Tails!" he suddenly screamed, panicking. "Get me out of here!! Amy's probably headed here right now!! I'm too young to settle down!"

Miles stared at him like he'd grown a second head.

"We're a kilometer and a half above the ground in the middle of a warzone. I don't think you have to worry about Amy."

"Says you!"

A shadow interrupted whatever response Miles may have had. Looking up, both he and Sonic saw two figures descending from above. Neither of them went by the name "Amy Rose."

Shadow landed first, arms crossed.

"Well, well, what's this?" he asked, a sinister laugh on his lips. "It looks like you two haven't been getting along lately."

Rouge flapped her wings twice before landing and folding them over her shoulders. Sonic immediately picked up where he left off; trying in vain to move his legs and break free from Tails' trap. Unfortunately, he had as much success as before – which was to say absolutely none. If anything, his struggles only made Shadow laugh louder.

"Well, this is just perfect!" Shadow leveled his right arm at the trapped hero. "Target practice."

With another weary groan, Tails forced himself back onto his feet, and walked between Sonic and his black doppelganger. Shadow lowered his arm slightly, but didn't disperse the Chaos Spear he'd been forming between his fingers. For several long seconds, the two simply stared. Then, without warning, Shadow released his attack.

Miles caught it with one hand, and it dispersed in a cloud of black and yellow.

"I saw that move before," the kitsune said, lowering his still smoking right hand. "I saw you kill my friends with it in Downunda."

"That's right," Shadow said, laughing again. "That's right! I remember. Those 'Freedom Fighters' of yours. You were running away with the Emerald and they attacked me. Pathetic fools."

Tails blue eyes tinted with barely restrained fury.

"And I remember… that last one to die, the girl," Shadow continued. "She kept screaming for you to run after I blew open her side. She refused to let go of my leg even with her guts tangled up around her legs. I'll admit that I was impressed you had the foresight to sacrifice her like that. It was a smart move."

Miles fists were balled tight at the memory.

"If I could do it again, I'd have stayed and fought."

"No. You wouldn't. Because you would still have known that I'd beat you." Shadow's smirk was merciless. "And now that Emerald, the one you sacrificed them to escape with, is mine. All you bought with their lives was time."

"Shadow!" Miles snarled, and a giant metal monstrosity emerged from behind the other side of the flying battleship. It had a vaguely dragon-like form, with dozens of spines and tentacles mixed in with a pair of giant bladed wings. Six red eyes glowed with electric hate above a cavernous maw filled with chainsaw teeth. Metal Sonic Phase Three was back.

Shadow's grin grew, if anything, wider.

"We don't have time for this," Rouge whispered. "I'll head inside and get the Emerald."

He nodded, his eyes never leaving the Metal Monstrosity and its kitsune master.

Heading for an access panel, Rouge didn't look back.

"Is that supposed to be Metal Sonic?" Shadow asked, letting her go. "The Doctor was curious what had happened to him."

"**I** happened," Miles told him, looking eager for the coming battle, despite the exhaustion and wounds just a few moments before. "And I've been waiting for this, Shadow! Waiting for the day when I could pay you back…"

Shadow craned his head to the side, cracking and flexing his neck.

"All right," he replied with a smile. "Let's see what you've got."

* * *

Hiding in one of the Carrier's unsealed air ducts, Sally caught her breath and carefully rerouted the alarm hooked up to the lazily spinning fan in her way. It was a fortunate thing she had come prepared for this little excursion, just on the off chance that they needed to break into Tails' airship and take the Emerald by force. What she hadn't expected was the need to go it alone.

It wasn't that she was uncomfortable going solo. Not in the least. She had hundreds of hours of cumulative experience behind enemy lines in infiltration and sabotage ops. She also had Nicole's original hand-held module with her, though some sort of jamming signal was preventing a linkup with the Nicole-Primary in Knothole. Still, she was well trained and well prepared. As a bonus, the one group of security personnel she had run into hadn't used their weapons, eschewing them to try and subdue her with stun-sticks.

'A capture order?' she wondered, working on removing the fan.

What she hadn't expected in coming here was for Tails to actually fight his two old friends. Not seriously. Not only had Tails nearly turned the tables and talked Sonic and Knuckles into backing off, but when that fell through, he actually fought them. It was hard to tell what happened to Knuckles. He had glided away after Metal Sonic, and since he couldn't fly or gain altitude without climbing something, he'd never be able to get back to the main ship.

Sally had been certain, even after Knuckles got taken out of the fight, that Sonic could step in and put a stop to Tails' would-be mutiny. That had been a while ago. Almost ten minutes. As far as she and the Nicole module could tell there were no alarms or other signs that Sonic was making his way through the ship himself. Was he still fighting Tails topside? The question came unbidden: had Tails _beaten_ Sonic?

That couldn't be, could it?

What on Mobius would she do to get out of here if he had?

The duct opened up to a large air recycling station. It was cylindrical, and below and above giant fans churned behind thin wire safety grating. It would probably be enough to break her fall, but there'd be no getting out of that pit if she slipped. Climbing carefully down from the duct she had just exited, Sally shimmied to the left as far as possible before the wall became too sheer, without any easy handhold. Making a short leap and pushing off the metal wall with her legs, Sally grabbed hold of the bracing around another fan duct.

Half-way there.

Climbing up this duct, to get back to the level she was at before, Sally inched to the edge and made another jump. Her fingers just caught the edge of another section of duct grating. Pulling herself up and huddling within the small space between the recycling adjunct and the next convection fan, she let out a long breath. That last jump had been a bit tougher than it looked.

She quickly went to work disabling the fan's alarm, and then removing the fan itself. Hopefully, a feedback loop would prevent anyone actually monitoring the ship's airways from detecting that it was off-line. Squeezing through the fan housing and into another small, featureless duct, Sally crawled forward. It would be pointless to try and find a way right into the forward engineering section of the ship. However, it was possible to find an unguarded access point into an adjacent area.

Nicole had identified just the place.

Several sections of the ship had been sealed off beneath and adjacent to the engineering section she needed to get to. Shimmying down a vertical stretch of ventilation, Sally landed softly and kept going, picking up the pace. Checking Nicole-module's schematics of the air shafts, she confirmed she was on course and very close. With the Primary Nicole miles away, the module could do, but it was very limited without an actual AI inside it. Sally tried not to have to rely on it too heavily.

Finally coming to her exit point, Sally cautiously unhooked the air duct grate, slipped out, and fitted it back in place. She had emerged in a small alcove in a disused maintenance bay. It was part of the original Egg Carrier, but with no robotic crew, these sections were basically redundant. Boxes full of spare parts were lined up on shelves nearby. Forcing open the door, Sally took a quick look around the maintenance bay.

Empty. Just as expected.

Taking a few seconds to stretch, now safely out in an open area instead of a cramped air duct, she worked out the kinks in her neck and shoulders. Heading down to the end of the bay at a brisk pace, Sally saw it wasn't entirely empty. There were a few robots in various states of disarray and repair: mostly Combots, but one Robian. They didn't look like they were being repaired, so she wagered it likely that they were being stripped for parts.

The Combots Sally couldn't care less about, but it meant that the Robian was basically a total loss. It was impossible using current technology to successfully de-roboticize a Robian who had too much hardware swapped in or out. Turning organic again resulted in massive organ failure and rejection of the foreign materials. There were still thousands of free Robians who couldn't return to normal because of the problem. Sally didn't even want to think about the fates of those Robians who had been stripped down for spare parts and then thrown out or recycled.

Reaching the end of the bay, Sally noticed something strange: parts of the wall seemed to be incongruous. Instead of smooth metal, it looked like it had been crudely patched over. Some of the metal plates bulged or warped. Finding the exit door she needed, Sally wedged it open using a steel bar before forcing it halfway open. It wasn't easy. She had to brace her legs against one section and her back against the other. Once it was part way open, she squeezed through and kept going.

The walls in this part of the ship also seemed to have some of the same problems as those at the end of the maintenance bay. In some areas, the metal frame was twisted, and in others, metal panels had fallen to the ground, dislodged from their place in the wall. Where they had once been, Sally could see strange faintly glowing circuitry and bundles of silver wire. It didn't look like normal Eggman tech.

The further she went, the more the walls became covered in the stuff. Eventually, the bulges behind the walls became more than they could bear, and the root-like metal growths broke the surface entirely. Cautiously, Sally touched one of the strange bulbs with her hand. It felt… warm. Not hot. Just warm.

'Body temperature,' she thought. 'What is this stuff?'

Deeper into the weave of metallic roots, along what had once been an access corridor, Sally found the door she had been looking for to be almost completely overgrown. Luckily, it still worked. Forcing it open, Sally found the room within to be almost pitch-black. Only a few faint blue lights illuminated tiny stretches of wall or ceiling. Reaching into her vest, Sally took out a flare. Popping the top, it burned with red tinted fire and light.

Faces.

Sally bit back a scream.

The walls: they were covered with faces. Disembodied robotic arms and legs hung from the ceiling like pieces of meat. The warped faceplates of Combots and Robians seemed to have been melted into the walls. Past even them, Sally could see what looked like fur covered bodies – Mobians? – deeper inside the chamber. Creeping along, trying to only step on plain metal plates in the floor, Sally moved in for a closer look.

They were... Tails Dolls?

She knew about the vile machines, of course. They were enemy AIs, ruthless, efficient, and utterly loyal. Eggman had been using them for more than a year now as a replacement for most of his Underbosses. According to rumor (no Doll had ever been captured before), they were covered with the patchwork skins of dead Mobians.

Getting closer to one of the dead Dolls, Sally could see there was truth to the macabre rumor. The skin and the fur certainly looked real, but whatever normal appearance it may have once had was immediately shattered by how crudely it seemed to be sewn together. It wasn't mean for infiltration. It was meant for terror. She had heard that the Dolls handled interrogations…

There were several of them nearby. One was pinned to the wall like a crucifixion, almost completely intact. Another was twisted horribly at the waist, with thick cords of silver wire impaling it. Another was in three pieces, the head hanging from the ceiling like a lamp by thick blue and silver tendrils. All stared out at the world with mute, emotionless black orbs for eyes. Above their heads, small red gems at the ends of metal pins glowed faintly, casting nearby features in a blood red hue.

It was horrific, and if anything, it got worse.

What was left of the forward engineering section was completely changed by the strange metal growth that had overwhelmed it. It seemed to be, at least partly, composed of as many as a hundred robots. Turning a corner, Sally saw more pieces embedded in the walls, the floor and the ceiling. Here, hands and arms twitched and swayed in a mockery of life. The faces melted into the walls glowed, as if screaming in silence. The walls themselves hummed and pulsed, throbbing like a giant heart.

'A giant heart…?' Sally thought. It was probably more appropriate a description than she had initially intended. 'I'm getting closer to the Emerald. It's here."

She literally jumped as something in the wall twisted and parted, revealing a large red orb, like an eye. Behind its glossy surface, Sally could see something focusing on her. She froze, waiting for… something. Anything. The red eye just stared at her, unblinking. Carefully keeping her distance from it, Sally rounded another corner, wary of the twitching robotic arms in the walls around her.

Another red orb emerged in the wall, watching her here, too.

This time, Sally tried to ignore it and press onward. The walls here were thick, and literally glowing with power. Despite having no personal sensitivity towards Chaos Energy in any of its forms, she could see that familiar yellow and green glow inside some of the pulsing tubes and wires in the walls. The fur on the back of her neck was literally standing on edge. Another red "eye" emerged and watched her. And another.

Coming to the last door, Sally pried it open and squeezed through what she could manage to open. This room, like the others, was completely covered in the strange metallic roots and growths. Unlike the others, however, here Sally could see a distinct structure, different in style from the bizarre metallic mass earlier. In the center of this room was a large, clearly manufactured cylinder.

Bright blue light ran along its surface, and a very clear sign stated:

WARNING

And underneath that

CHAOS DRIVE  
MPTCD-06794

It was one of Tails' power cores, designed to use a Chaos Emerald. Sally had seen one before, back when Tails and Rotor built the City Shield for Knothole. The young fox had tried to explain how it worked, but the technical jargon had gone completely over her head. What mattered was less **how** it worked, and more, that she remembered how it could be **opened**.

"Let's see… there should be four seals on the sides… ah ha! There!"

Sally found the indentations in the high tech cylinder, and pressed down on them with her hand. After taking a little force, they slid the rest of the way in, revealing four recessed handles. Taking the first one, Sally pulled at it, causing one end of the handle to detach. She then rotated the lever ninety degrees and locked it back in place. Another full ninety degree turn unlocked the first seal, turning a reaction light from red to green.

Repeating the procedure for the other three seals, Sally was rewarded as the front of the Chaos Drive unlocked with a hiss. A blast of hot air shot out from inside the device, and the now slightly exposed frontal plate split in half, down the middle, and slid up and down out of the way. Sally had expected that to be it, but there appeared to be another layer of security protecting the Emerald within.

WARNING a screen flashed DRIVE SYSTEMS ONLINE

HAZARD HAZARD HAZARD HAZARD

DISENGAGE SAFETIES

That made sense.

Sally looked around in the now exposed interior of the Chaos Drive. A panel with writing on it tipped her off. Sliding it open, she saw a series of breaker switches. Some were by themselves; others were boxed off and labeled with colors. The back of the panel coded each color with a system, and the order for activation or deactivation. Sally followed it carefully; the last thing she wanted was a potentially Mobius-shattering kaboom (or a potentially Sally-splattering discharge of energy).

Flipping the last breaker, the WARNING and HAZARD labels disappeared.

Within the Chaos Drive, an inner section swiveled and rotated as it rose up from below. It did so quickly (and abruptly enough to catch someone's fingers, if they weren't careful) before snapping in place. The new section was banded by yellow and black stripes, the universal symbol for "warning." A second later, the banded metal cylinder split open and rotated again, finally revealing a large fist sized sapphire gemstone.

Sally reached for the Chaos Emerald… when a voice interrupted her.

"Isn't stealing a little below you, Princess?"

She turned slowly and saw Rouge standing behind her, hands on her hips.

"I mean, you're ok at it," Rouge continued, smirking at the other girl. "But you really should leave it to a professional."

"Rouge!" Sally removed the Emerald, but kept her eyes on the bat girl. Red warming lights suddenly lit up all around them, bathing the room in an amber glow. "How did you get here?"

"The door," Rouge replied, pointing over her shoulder at the main section airlock. It did nothing to explain how she had waltzed past the ship's guards and other defenses. "I'm guessing you took the creepy basement route, huh?"

Well, that wasn't an inaccurate description.

"If you're here, then Shadow…?"

Rouge nodded. "He's topside with the other boys."

Sally glanced down at the Emerald in her right hand, then back up at Rouge.

"As if Knothole wasn't bad enough, you're coming here to finish the job?" she asked, frowning. "How could you?! We trusted you!"

"I have my reasons," Rouge answered, a little more evasively than usual. "Now, hand over that Emerald. We're running out of time."

"And what do you think will happen when Robotnik gets his hands on all seven of these?" Sally asked. "Or Shadow for that matter?"

Rouge sighed. "I'm not an idiot, Princess. I think I know what's going to happen better than you do."

Sally tensed as Rouge advanced on her.

"Wait, how did you get here so quickly? You don't look like you've got a scratch on you," Sally observed, still keeping the Emerald close and away from the jewel thief. "What…?

Before she could ask any more potentially troublesome questions – Rouge still couldn't be sure her equipment wasn't bugged – the bat swooped in. Sally managed to block the heel kick with her forearm, but she definitely felt the force of the blow. The Princess winced, but pushed back, forcing Rouge to land on her feet a short distance away. The actual difference in general strength between them wasn't great, but Rouge knew her special kicks were far more potent than anything the otherwise baseline normal Sally Acorn could manage.

There was no time to waste being diplomatic.

"I said!" Rouge charged, spinning into a lightning fast side kick. "I'll be taking that Emerald, Princess!"

* * *

Sonic was not amused.

Not only was he still rooted in place (with all the humiliation and frustration that entailed), but he had to stand and watch from the sidelines while Tails and a giant Metal Dragon that had formerly been a hedgehog (odd, that) fought Shadow. By all rights, he should have been out there, helping to tag team the angst ridden black psychopath. Sonic still hadn't forgotten Shadow's insults from before, and he had every intention of showing the damned faker just who he was ripping off.

Which he would probably have already done, except, of course, for the fact that his two tailed former best bud had basically welded him to a gigantic battleship and made it impossible to move. It wasn't as if Sonic hadn't tried to escape either. Eggman had tried the "lol – I'll stick your feet to the ground" trick before, but Sonic always found a way to spin or dash out of it. Whatever bad mojo Tails had used was proving to be far harder to break.

So Sonic had no choice but to stand and watch.

Despite being smacked around a bit by the Knucklehead and then pinballed a few times by Sonic himself, Tails still seemed to have the energy to fight. Sonic watched as the kitsune shot upwards in a rising spin attack, meeting Shadow head on before bouncing off and hurling more of those explosive rings. A cacophony of explosions engulfed the black hedgehog, and Metal Sonic (or was he Metal Overlord or Metal Madness now? Sonic couldn't remember) flew in to take advantage of the confusion.

They'd been going at this for a while now.

Tails would attack and fall back, and then Metal would jump in and Shadow would start tearing him up. Then, Tails would jump back in, usually with some kind of trick, like a really big bomb, or a rigged shield ring, or whatever. Then the process would repeat. Metal would fly off and reform himself somewhere, and by the time he came back, he'd jump back into the fray and Tails would take a breather.

Shadow seemed to have less of a plan. He was simply trying to bull through each opponent as they came. Already, the armored hull of the air carrier beneath them was pock marked by craters, ragged tears and other scars, most of them caused by Shadow's reckless use of Chaos Power. Putting himself in Shadow's shoes (Sonic grimaced at the thought – the black fake had no style in footwear) Sonic couldn't help but be impressed.

If he had been out there, in all honesty, he'd probably be near exhaustion.

Tails was obviously trying to wear the black hedgehog down and deplete his reserves of Chaos Energy. Shadow was obviously trying to just kill either one of the two of them before the other jumped back in to the fight. He wasn't having much luck. Tails had developed some way to counter or nullify Shadow's Chaos Spear attack, and when Shadow tried to spin or homing attack, the fox did just what he did before. He dodged and blocked the predictable attacks with his tails before slipping out of melee.

Shadow actually had more success with Metal Sonic, at least on the surface. Metal had no way to nullify the Chaos Spears, so he simply tanked them. He was also slower in his dragon form. Shadow would try and take advantage of this by attacking furiously, blowing or slicing off wings and arms and tentacles. It was always a good start, but then Tails would jump back in, Metal would reform, and Shadow would be back to where he started.

Not that Sonic was rooting for the psycho, but still…

Shadow and Tails broke out of a spiral of blows, uncurling and resuming their normal forms as they landed. The latter's namesakes spun to try and slow him down as he held out his hands. A great blast of golden ring energy convulsed down the fox's arms, and shadow jerked sharply to the side as a giant block of nullification polymer formed in the air, nearly encasing him completely.

The roughly hewn block of material slouched off the side of the moving air carrier, and Shadow took the opportunity to attack. Flipping nimbly over the surface of the ship, mindful of the hundreds of normally hidden ring mines placed on the hull – he could feel their presence all around him, like buzzing flies – Shadow attacked. Tails needed both hands to effectively project the two component molecules of the polymer weapon, and a second for the two high velocity vapor streams to meet and merge.

Shadow jumped and dodged as a dozen wedges and rectangles solidified around him, trying to pin him in place. Finally, Miles formed another giant block of it directly in front of him. Shadow rushed into it and, at the last second, Chaos Controlled right through the would-be barrier. Tails barely had time to shield himself with his namesakes before a homing attack slammed into him. Shadow quickly uncurled and tried to land a blow with his fist, but Tails shot off to the side and flipped away.

Shadow's rocket shoes fired as he skidded along the ground, inadvertently setting off a cluster of ring mines. The so called ultimate life form rolled and shot up, hitting Metal's dragon-like claw before it could slam down on his otherwise vulnerable form. Blasting straight through the metal plating and assimilated circuitry, Shadow whirled and struck the giant monstrosity's face with a kick. Pushing off before its chainsaw teeth could close in on him, Shadow slipped through the flapping bladed wings and landed on top of a damaged weapons turret.

Metal Sonic landed on all fours, his bulk setting off more ring mines that served to tear up its damaged legs. Still, Shadow could see the damage being repaired and regenerated on the spot. The black hedgehog scowled, red eyes moving from the endlessly regenerating robot to the troublesome kitsune who commanded it. Either one of them would have been manageable, but both at once… it was proving…

Difficult.

'If this keeps going on, the war will end before either of us wins,' he thought bitterly. 'I haven't heard from Rouge yet, so it's impossible to tell if she has the Emerald yet. It's been a long time, but I'll just have to do _that_.'

"Metal!" Tails yelled, pointing at the giant robot. "Open Control Permissions! Password: Miles Prower Angel Arc Seven-Seven-Eight-Delta!"

Shadow sneered, unlocking the rings around his wrists.

Miles jumped, flying upwards. "Phase Four Release… Granted!"

Metal Madness' four red eyes flashed in acknowledgment. Immediately, it began to convulse and then shrink. The giant mecha rose up on its two rear legs and gave an indistinct roar as it fell apart. Shadow stared at it, shocked by the sudden change. It was as if the machine was coming apart at the seams… or as if it were shedding its skin. Within seconds, the dragon that embodied Metal Madness shattered like a glass crystal.

In its place, a giant metal block fell to the ground.

"What the Hell?" Shadow couldn't help but ask. He knew vaguely about Metal Sonic and his 'berserker' nanites, so he hadn't been surprised when he saw the giant dragon form it had eventually taken. Now Metal Sonic had become what exactly?

A giant metal cube?

"Phase Four Engaged." A robotic monotone announced. "Slave Uplink Established. Warning: Power Transmission at Maximum."

"Here's an interesting fact, Shadow." Tails landed a good distance away from the Metal Cube. "When I hijacked Metal here, and the Tails Dolls under him, I also took over all these ships you see around you…"

Shadow frowned – the brat was referring to all the airships he'd pirated.

"I took four of those ships, four Destroyer-class vessels," the kitsune explained, holding up four fingers. "And slaved their power systems to Metal Sonic. Normally, the power drain is minuscule. Each ship produces much more power than it really needs, especially when it's just hovering in place and not fighting. However, if I choose, I can redirect up to twenty five percent of a ship's power through the slave link power transmitter."

"Get it now?" Tails asked, grinning. "At full power, Metal Sonic has the combined power of an entire warship!"

The Metal block took that moment to crack down the middle.

The two halves pushed apart, and a glowing form emerged from within. Metal Sonic appeared, thinner than before, composed of rippling, seamless metal. The texture was almost liquid, like mercury, and it glowed with an inner intensity. As it took another step, the robot slowly morphed, as silvery veins and tendrils wrapped around its skeletal frame. Like previous iterations, this Metal Sonic had a hole in its chest, like an engine, but seamless. A spinning orb in the center glowed with burnished shades of red and yellow. The rest of it was likewise seamless, with no obvious joints or mechanical parts.

"Another Sonic clone?!" Sonic yelled, shaking an angry fist. "Gimme a break! At least this one isn't a recolor… but still! Not cool, man!"

Miles waved him off. "Do you always have to ruin the mood? Just stand there and enjoy the show!" He then turned back to Shadow. "I call this Final Form 'Metal Destroyer' because he's powered by four Destroyer class airships. Truth be told, I wasn't actually planning on using this. Not unless things really got out of control. But…!"

Shadow's mouth turned up into a smirk.

"I meant what I said before," Tails snarled. "I really **would** like to make you pay for what you've done! So, Shadow, let's see what an ultimate life form like you can really do! Metal Destroyer!"

The silver and blue robot turned to its master.

"Kill him."

One second it was standing there, and then the next it was gone. Shadow's eyes could barely follow it. A blue and gray hand filled his vision, and reacting purely on instinct, Shadow lifted his arm to block the normally razor edged fingers. A heartbeat later and Shadow found himself skidding along the surface of the captured Egg Carrier, heading for the edge of the forward prow. Digging his heels against the metal surface and mentally activating his rocket boots, he had only just started to come to a stop when a thunderous blow to the side sent him spinning.

Trying to straighten out in midair, he saw a flash of light and evaded at the last moment as a beam sliced through the air. Following it, Shadow saw Metal hovering in place. This time, Shadow did see – at least partly – the robot move, as a great gout of yellow energy shot out from behind it. Twisting to try and dodge, Shadow felt a bone crushing impact in his left shoulder. Flying through the air like a rag doll, he hit the armored hull of the _Nor'easter_ with a wet thud before crashing into a raised metal beam.

'Damnit! My arm…broken!?'

Shadow winced, reaching over to his left wrist to finish removing the golden band fitted to his glove. Hastily throwing it away, he used his teeth to remove the one on his right hand. His left arm was broken in three places, with at least one of those breaks being a comminuted fracture that he could feel nearly breaking the skin.

'This is bad… at this rate I could actually die.'

Chuckling darkly, Shadow let his right control ring fall from his teeth.

A second later, and Metal Destroyer was hovering above him. A diamond hard hand reached down and seized the black hedgehog by the neck, lifting him up and off his feet. A glint of light reflected off Metal's seamless form. Shadow watched as the robot reared back its left hand to deliver a killing blow.

'Come on… come on!' Shadow thought, coughing up a bit of blood.

Metal's pale red eyes flashed as it froze the moment in its memory.

'Come on!' Shadow repeated, and began to reach up with his remaining arm. "Come on! Come on!"

Metal's left hand shot forward, aiming to punch a hole clean through Shadow's forehead. The mercury appendage stopped short of its target by barely more than an inch. Shadow's good hand had it by the wrist. Metal's eyes flashed again, this time in surprise as it processed the curious new data.

Shadow's grin grew wide and vicious.

"There we go."

Metal's hand corkscrewed through the air, popped off at the wrist.

Standing almost a hundred meters away, Miles' eyes widened. Shadow's entire body became wreathed in red and black fire: an uncontrolled and unfocused inferno of raging chaos energy. Not only was it enough to squeeze off Metal Destroyer's hand, but it pushed the robot back and away from the horrific aura, forcing it to release the now unleashed ultimate life form. Tails narrowed his eyes at the phenomenon.

And at the inhibitor ring that rolled along and over the edge of the ship.

"Hmm." The kitsune frowned. "Looks like I've lost this one."

Metal Destroyer's chest began to glow, pinpricks of energy building around its central core. Shadow's burning form lunged towards it, a wordless scream echoing within the _Nor'easter_'s now flaring shield. The living conflagration plowed right into Metal's capital ship beam. Twisting lances of excited particles bent around Shadow as he pushed through the charged beam.

One helix of particles sheared a five hundred ton armored turret clear out of its mornings. Another narrowly missed hitting the _Nor'easter_'s hull, leaving a molten scar in its wake before hitting the massive ship's shield. The shield matrix, designed to shrug off any attack short of a nuclear barrage, burned a visible white. Amid the pulsing particles and armor melting fire, Shadow's right hand slammed into and through Metal Destroyer's face, shattering mercury-like metal and living circuitry.

Tails appeared next to Sonic, holding his hands out in front of him.

"Holy mother of -- "

"SHIELD! FOUR HUNDRED RINGS!" The fox cried, and a thick layered energy shield appeared around the two of them. Tails then wrapped his tails around Sonic. A second later, and a blast of light – and a wave of nuclear fire - engulfed the front half of the former Egg Carrier.


	35. Countdown to Extinction v

Deep inside the mighty vessel, Aya Florentine bucked in her chair as the entire Flag Bridge shook. For the first time in the entire air war, a warning siren sent off, indicating substantial damage having penetrated both the shield and armor. The lights flickered for all of a millisecond.

"What just happened?" she roared, steadying herself. "Damage control?!"

"Turrets seven, eight and nine are all down! Turret six is damaged!"

"We have internal fires on Decks two and three! Forward section!"

"Damnit Miles!" Aya ran her hands through chestnut brown hair. "What the Hell are you doing up there?"

* * *

Blood dribbled from Shadow's left arm.

His right was still buried in the skull of what had once been Metal Sonic. Metal Destroyer. Whatever it was called now. Scrap Metal would work. There was nothing left of the seamless mercury skin of the robot. All that remained was a burned and broken husk, less than a skeleton. Flake by flake, bit by bit, what was left of Metal drifted away in the superheated winds.

Shadow tore his arm free from the blasted corpse.

The armored hull around where he stood was warped and bent and melted. He'd put everything into that final blow, and it had proved telling. He was the ultimate life form! He was stronger than even a warship!

"I'm – I'm stronger…" Shadow stumbled forward, barely conscious. "I'm stronger…"

Every cell in his body ached and burned.

Roaring in pain and triumph, Shadow clutched his ruined arm. Without the inhibitor rings, it was nearly impossible to control the flow of energy from the Chaos Force into his body. Gerald never outright said so, but even _he_, Shadow the Hedgehog, wasn't truly the perfect final iteration of the ultimate life form. A perfect life form wouldn't need the inhibitor rings.

Without them, he was like an open water main: the energy would just pour out in one titanic rush, leaving him completely drained. Gerald had been working on the problem, developing a gene therapy to replace the inhibitor rings, when he'd been murdered. When told about it, Gerald's esteemed grandson had simply observed that the inhibitor rings worked fine, so why bother fixing what wasn't broken?

Shadow fell to his knees.

"Damnit!" he cursed, reaching down to his blood stained left glove. Pressing a hidden trap in the red armored extension over his wrist, a new inhibitor ring slipped out and wound around his wrist. Repeating the process for his right hand was harder, with his left arm broken in three places, but he eventually got that done, too.

Rings back in place, he started towards where he had last seen the blue Faker and his former sidekick. The air still literally crackled with stray energy and faint radiation. It was hard to see at first. Even in his nearly invincible empowered form, he had been right next to Metal's reactor meltdown. The flash had nearly blinded him. As it was, it probably blinded anyone who happened to be looking near where the fight was taking place, even through the _Nor'easter_'s shield.

Soon, Shadow saw where Sonic and Tails had been.

A perfect concave crater had been excised from the armored hull.

"Tsk. Annoying brat."

"Shadow? Can you hear me?"

Rouge.

Shadow reached up to the device nestled deep in his left ear. It was amazing that it was still in there, after all that. That Rouge was contacting him, and sounding less than panicked, was a good sign. Slogging through Maria-knew what down below in the ship was not an appealing thought at the moment.

"Do you have the Emerald?" he didn't mince words. If she didn't have it, then she really had little business contacting him.

"I've got it!"

A small smile graced his features.

"And I'm fine, by the way, thanks for asking. I just need extraction. Is it safe up there?" Rouge asked. "It sounded like a nuke went off just a minute ago and I'd rather not grow a third arm tonight."

"You should be fine. Where – ah! I can feel the Emerald!" he did, though his senses were still a bit fuzzy from the blast and shock. Running over to the remains of an access port, he waited a few seconds for Rouge to finally emerge. When she did, she had a small duffel bag over her shoulder. Helping her up, he gave it a longing look.

"Want to see it?" Rouge zipped open the bag, and Shadow could see a large sapphire gem inside. She winked playfully at him. "I had a little tussle getting it. Sorry for the delay."

"This is it!" He stared at her. "Rouge… you…!"

And, for the first time since Maria, since _that_ time, Shadow hugged someone.

"You did it! You did it!" He held her tightly with his right arm. "I won't forget this, Rouge! I won't forget how you helped make Maria's dream come true!"

"Um… thanks?" she squirmed a bit. "Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but… a bit tight?"

Shadow let out a relieved laugh and eased up the pressure a bit. "Sorry. I'm just so… excited… to finally bring justice to this world! I've waited for this moment for so long!"

"We should get out of here," Rouge reminded him. "There are a whole bunch of pissed off guys right behind…"

" -- Control!" Shadow lifted his hand off the duffel bag.

"She says just when they teleport," Rouge finished. Just like that, they were back inside Helios, back inside the Eclipse Chamber. The tiny blip of light in the middle of the giant spherical chamber was the same as before, beating with a steady rhythmic pulse. Rouge looked around with apprehension.

Shadow was practically giddy.

"Do you have the Emerald?" Robotnik's voice came out over hidden speakers in the room's walls. "You had better have it!"

Shadow held his finger to his ear.

"We have it, Doctor!" he held out his hand, and Rouge tentatively handed him the seventh and final Chaos Emerald. "I'll insert it into Eclipse immediately!"

Heedless of his injuries, Shadow ran to the single empty spot in the Eclipse Ring.

"Now, finally! Finally!" He opened the Emerald port, and carefully pushed the gemstone inside. "Maria!!! Watch me, Maria! Watch me from your seat in heaven! Watch as I bring justice to this corrupt, imperfect world! This living Hell!!"

The ring swallowed up the Emerald.

"Yes! Judgment is finally at hand!" Shadow cackled. "Our Grandfather's weapon will **burn it all to ashes**! Maria!"

Rouge listened, trying to remain expressionless and calm.

Shadow stalked back over to her.

Resting a hand on her shoulder, the two of them vanished, Chaos Controlling out of the room. An instant later, and they were in Helios' command center. Just like Shadow, Eggman seemed to be getting in touch with his inner nut job. He had his hands in the air, upraised, and he was currently lost in a fit of insane giggles and outright guffaws. Such was the force of it that the large man's entire bulk shook with the laughter.

Rouge reached for a pocket strapped to her left leg.

"The Emerald is in place, Doctor," Shadow declared, a hint of genuine pride in his voice. "We have Rouge to thank for it."

"Oh yes! Yes!" Eggman turned slightly, looking over his shoulder with menacing, shadowed eyes. "Rest assured, Shadow, I always repay those who serve me. Both you and Rouge will be rewarded with all you desire…"

Gods, he sent chills down her spine.

"Oh! I've been waiting for finally use Eclipse to its full potential! What to kill? What to kill? What to kill? **What to kill?**" The insane scientist giggled again as he repeated the words, looking from screen to screen.

Rouge backed up a step.

"You!" Eggman pointed gleefully at the looming battleship _Nor'easter_, at the center of the GUN-Miles Armada. "You! I made that ship first, so it's only right that I destroy it!"

Shadow nodded in agreement and approval. "The GUN Remnant."

"I'll enjoy watching them burn!" Robotnik let out one last body shaking laugh. "Helios! Open the Eye! Full Power! Annihilate that ship and everyone on it!"

Rouge silently touched the ring Miles had given her and prayed.

* * *

Sonic didn't know when it happened.

He didn't even know what had happened.

Only when he reached up with unsteady hands and ran trembling fingers down his face did he realize that his eyes were still open. Drawing his hands back suddenly, he squeezed his eyes closed, and then checked to make sure… Yes. They closed and opened, and still he couldn't see anything. Only an endless sea of white with tiny flecks of black, like a night sky in reverse. Groping ahead of him, the blue hedgehog walked slowly, unsurely, mind refusing to believe… refusing to accept he was…

Blind?

Or dead.

At that thought, something snagged the mobian's foot, and he fell to the ground with a grunt. Sonic felt blades of grass against his cheek, and his fingers could feel pliant soil. Alive, then, but still blind. Still… still…!

And Tails!

What had happened? What was going on?!

"What," he managed to say through parched, cracked lips. "What's…?"

Crawling on all fours, feeling ahead of him with his hands, Sonic groaned and choked back a desperate animal sound that nearly escaped from his lips. Struggling for control, fighting to keep calm, he kept crawling. His fingers curled around something hard, a thick root, and he used it to pull himself forward and up. He rested there for what seemed like a few minutes, but must have been, in reality, far more.

Breathing heavily, Sonic tried to search the rest of his body for any other injuries. His arms and legs (thank god, his legs!) seemed to be normal, and aside from his exhaustion, it didn't seem like he'd been hurt. But he still didn't know where he was, why he was even alive, or even how long he'd been here. He couldn't even tell what time it was, because he couldn't see the sky. Craning his head up, he closed his eyes again and felt something wet stream down his cheek.

"sal…"

It was his last word, his last thought, before he passed out.

Consciousness returned. Sonic felt something holding up his head by the chin, and a cool liquid dribble down his lower lip. Opening his mouth, instinctively, the hedgehog tasted water, and felt his chin being forced up slightly. Drinking greedily, he coughed hoarsely when it was all gone, and reached up to his face. Starting to open his eyes, he felt a strong grip on his wrist stop him, and a hand move up to keep them closed.

"Don't open them. Not yet. I should have told you to shield your eyes."

Tails.

Sonic awoke again; it was impossible to tell how long he'd been out. Blinking fiercely, he saw the bright white light come and go, forcing him to squint. It took a few seconds, but the world began to clear up, first into black and white outlines, and then finally in dull colors. Sonic, for one of the few times in his life, waited patiently. A canopy of tress and leaves - beautiful browns, greens, red and oranges - obscured the clear blue sky. A far cry from the rolling blue ocean he last remembered flying over.

This was… had to be… the Great Forest?

The trees. Old oaks and spruces and dogwoods… they were in the southern range of the Great Forest. When his vision returned, Sonic slowly got back to his feet, steadying himself with the help of the large tree he'd found… how long ago? It didn't matter. Not at the moment, anyway. Looking through the bush and forest, Sonic relied on his hearing. It wasn't the best of his senses, granted (nearly every breed of mobian had better hearing then hedgehogs), but he was willing to give it a try.

That was when he heard it.

A voice: a mumble.

Sonic walked cautiously towards the sound. High above, a flock of birds took to the air, causing a shower of leaves in their wake. Pushing a branch out of his way, Sonic saw a gold and tan form hunched over in a clearing. It was Tails. That much was obvious by the two tails, tawny orange with white tips. Approaching, Sonic heard his old friend start to laugh.

"Hey?" Sonic called out, softly. "Hey, Tails? You ok?"

Slowly, the kitsune fox turned his head and looked over his shoulder. In the dappled light of the forest, his blue eyes had the color of clear water. After a second of silence, Tails stood up and looked back down at the ground in front of him. Then, amazingly, he started to laugh again, in a shallow, hollow sort of way. Concern for his 'little buddy' overriding the caution he'd unconsciously developed, Sonic approached the clearing.

What he saw at Tails' feet forced him to choke back a gasp.

Bones.

In a shallow grave. Sonic looked at the kitsune youth's gloveless hands and saw they were encrusted with dirt, all the way up to the elbow. He had been digging. The two stood in silence. Sonic took a long look at the collection of bones in the shallow grave, and the truth gradually dawned on him. The skull… the skull was…

Tails let out another abrupt choked sound, part laugh, part sob.

"I thought," he finally spoke. "My parents should have a better grave than this. I think I just made things worse. Stupid."

"Tails?" Sonic looked at his friend and saw, suddenly, that his eyes were distant. His cheeks were dry now, but the fur was broken in places and showed the signs of tears.

"I guess I… I - I'll come back later and - and do something." He kneeled down, and reached out to the skull, trailing his fingers gently down its pale white cheek.

"Buy a headstone or - or," Tails was babbling now. Sonic couldn't remember the last time he had actually babbled or been at a loss for words like this. "You know, I… I don't even know how kitsune bury their dead. This isn't where I wanted to go. We were supposed to go somewhere else."

Sonic stood there, unsure what to say.

"Sorry," Tails finally cut himself short. "I guess this is pretty macabre, huh?"

That was a bit more like usual.

"If by macabre, you mean creepy and weird," Sonic replied, and looked down at the skull. "Your folks?"

"My biological parents," Tails confirmed. "We're less than a hundred miles from West Island, where we first met. I… well, you know. I lived in these forests for a little while."

Sonic nodded mutely. He knew most of the story. Tails had been a feral child for a year or so, before being taken in by a family near West Island. Something had happened to them, and Tails eventually settled down on the Island itself. That was where Sonic met him, years and years ago.

The blue hedgehog bit his lip, unsure what to say. He wasn't the kind of mobian to have around at times like this. He wanted to help his now-too-mature friend, but… but… he knew he'd say the wrong thing. And so he said nothing. He felt paralyzed. He couldn't run from this problem, he could only… wait… watch…

And doing so was eating him up inside.

What had happened here?

"Come on," Tails said, sitting down against a nearby tree. "I'm not crazy and I'm not evil. Though I did beat you in a fight a while back."

"You didn't beat me!" Sonic blurted out, sitting down cross legged. "All you did was get me stuck in one spot. That doesn't count as a win."

"You're delusional!" Tails gave an exasperated sigh. "And what if I just played ring-bomb toss with your head while you couldn't move?"

"Yeah?" Sonic asked. "And what if I, uh… look, whatever! It totally wasn't a fair fight anyway."

"Yeah, because I had to beat Knuckles first."

"Bull-shit! You won because you rigged the playfield! You had traps set up!"

"I set traps up during the fight, not before, so it's fair."

"How can you call setting up traps at all fair?"

"If you don't like it, you should have said 'no traps' instead of 'no biting.'"

"You said no biting, I said no eye pokes."

"Next time I'll totally poke you in the eye then, but not set traps. Better?"

"No! This is the same thing you did when we fight on the Playstation! You just keep freezing my guy and hitting him!"

"The freeze beam was a legitimate move. And all you ever did was jump kick! Jump kick over and over again! You're the annoying one!"

Sonic and Tails exchanged evil looks that quickly dissolved into laughter. For a few seconds, they sat together in the forest and forgot about the actual fight they'd had just an hour or so earlier and all the danger and grief that had occurred over the last twenty four hours. Tails rubbed his gloves together, trying to get them a little clean; Sonic, meanwhile, rubbed his eyes.

"Hey, don't do that!" the kitsune spoke up. "The blast nearly burned out your retinas."

"Oh."

"Yep."

For another few seconds they sat, avoiding talking about anything serious.

"Sally looks good," Tails finally said, testing the waters. "Got over the food poisoning already?"

Sonic stared at his former partner.

"You didn't have anything to do with that, did you?"

Tails shrugged. "I considered it very likely there would be an attempt made on her life after Shadow left to attack Knothole."

"You actually _poisoned_ Sally?"

"Well, I arranged it," Miles admitted, but added, "For her own good."

Sonic shook his head and sighed. "Well, at least you were right. Snively tried to kill her with some chemical gas thing. St. John ended up keeping her safe. Buncha other people didn't make it, though."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Really?" Sonic asked, giving Tails a long look. "Are you?"

"Of course I am," the fox replied, and crossed his arms defiantly. "In case you couldn't tell, I've gone out of my way not to kill anyone I don't have to. That includes you, by the way."

"Why are you killing people at all?" Sonic asked, letting a bit of anger into his voice. "I taught you better than that, man!"

"Sonic… I'm doing this because I couldn't live with myself if I did what you do." Tails stared at the dirt on his gloves. "Letting Robotnik get away all those times may have made you feel good, and it may have felt like you were taking the moral high ground, but it wasn't right. You should have killed him a long time ago."

"I've done nothing but stop him from…"

"Sonic. Cut the bullshit, would you?" Tails growled. "I was there. I've been there for years. I know you keep letting him get away. You could have **really** stopped him a dozen times by now if you really **tried**."

"By killing him," Sonic said it. It wasn't a question.

"Yeah. By killing him."

"And maybe I should just go around killing everyone I run into who I don't get along with?" Sonic asked, being totally serious for once. "Maybe I should've killed Knuckles, back when he was our enemy? Or Khan? Or King Max, back when he was brainwashed and we didn't even know it was him?"

"I know what you're saying," Tails replied, holding up his hands for Sonic to stop. "Source, I agree with it... but only so far. Do you really think you can reform Eggman? Do you?"

Sonic didn't answer; he just stared at the grass.

"I'm taking it out of your hands," Tails said, when it became clear Sonic didn't have a response. "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to take care of everything."

Tails let out a self depreciating chuckle.

"You know, Sonic, you're still my hero. But our lives, our interests… even our morals... they're different. I'm not going to try and pretend to be you. I'm me. And I'm fine with that."

Sonic's brow kitted into a frown, but he nodded.

"If that's the way it's gotta be."

"You planning on fighting me again?" Tails then asked. "We've already fought over Fiona once, and then for the amusement of a bunch of aliens, and then in that parallel world, and then when we were mind controlled, and once when you were mind controlled, and then another time with I was mind controlled, and then…"

"I get it, I get it," Sonic said. "I won't attack you… unless you really do take this thing of yours too far."

"And Robotnik?"

"I dunno," Sonic admitted. "I… still don't like it. But if you want to live with that, I'll let you."

"He deserves it, you know. Shadow, too."

"That's not really for me to say, one way or another."

Tails smirked. "I never imagined I'd have a mature conversation with _you_, you know. You always wander off when I try and talk about this stuff."

"Yeah, well, it's annoying." Sonic rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I can't exactly avoid it now, so whatever."

Tails nodded in agreement and looked up at the forest canopy.

"I've ordered two Assault GEARS to meet up with us here. Speed type. We can take them back north."

"What about the Tornado?"

At the name of the plane (one version of it) he had been forced to destroy, Tails groaned sadly. Blue eyes lingered on the cloudy sky beyond the trees.

"The Tornado Two was on the _Nor'easter_. The Tornado One… Source… there probably isn't enough left of it to fill a bathtub. My poor baby…"

"You're the one who blew it up."

"You're the one who force me to," Tails grumbled. "You couldn't have taken any other plane? There are like fifty in Knothole. But no, you had to take the Tornado!"

"I didn't know how to fly any of the others," Sonic said with another casual shrug. "Just rebuild it later."

Tails glared at the hedgehog, eyebrows raised.

"That is so typical. _Just rebuilt it_ he says!" the kitsune slowly looked back over to the nearby remains he had unearthed. He didn't say anything, but Sonic could tell that he was still distraught over having found them.

"I'm sure they're proud of you, man," Sonic kept the comments in time tested territory. It seemed like a nice safe thing to say.

"Actually, I doubt that," Tails replied, and closed his eyes.

"Hey, of course they are! You saved the world…" Sonic began. "Well, you helped ME save it, anyway. A bunch of times! That counts!"

"Humble as always," Tails commented, but didn't try and correct his hero and old mentor. "Next time you're plummeting out of the upper atmosphere, maybe I won't fly up and save your ass."

"A couple hundred more rings and I could have totally tanked the landing!"

Tails lifted a finger and almost tried to refute that.

"Anyway," he changed topics. "That's not what I meant. My kitsune parents wouldn't have cared that I helped you save the world. Or that I've been fighting Robotnik. That sort of stuff isn't important to them."

"Wait, what? How can it not be important?!" Sonic asked, baffled. "Saving the world is like the most important thing you can do!"

Tails shook his head.

"To you and me, and to most mobians," he agreed. "Yeah. But kitsune are… they're different. It'd hard to describe. From what I got out of Tempest, my real parents would have only cared about what I did for the family, the clan, and what I've done to 'perfect myself.' Putting my life on the line for other non-kitsune… they'd probably disown me if they weren't already dead."

"Are you…" Sonic almost hesitated to ask. "Are you gonna leave after this?"

"Maybe for a little while, if I can," Miles replied with a small smile. "I want to see some things. Maybe try and find someone special. I've always wanted to go on a walkabout in Downunda. I've wanted to do that for a long time, but never had the chance."

"Man, I thought we could go on a race around the world or something!" Sonic enthused. "You, me, and the Knucklehead! We could totally see the sights, the cities, the open air… _the ladies…_!"

Tails smile grew. "That sounds cool, too. I'd definitely come."

"What happened to Knuckles anyway?" Sonic asked, remembering that the last time he'd seen the red echidna, he'd been chasing a certain Metal monstrosity.

"Metal shook him off. Last update I got had him climbing up the side of one of my airships," Tails explained. "He should be fine."

Sonic nodded; that was good to hear. "What happened back there, anyway?"

"Shadow destroyed Metal… even in Phase Four." Tails groaned. "After all the work I put into making him an unstoppable killing machine, too! I gotta admit, it was impressive, but… no matter. Everything went basically according to plan."

"Plan?" Sonic asked. "This 'the plan' you saw fit to not tell anyone else?"

"Rouge knew everything."

"Rouge?" Sonic sounded unconvinced. "Really? Rouge?"

"Everything she did, she did on my orders," Tails explained. "Of course she knew about the plan. She helped me make it. In fact, it would be more accurate to call it _our plan_."

"And your plan was… what?" Sonic asked, guessing. "To try and kill Shadow with traps at the two Chaos Emeralds?"

"Not at all," Miles corrected the hedgehog. "While I would've been happy to actually finish off that bastard, killing Shadow was just a side project. I always knew he would take the Emerald in Knothole. I've already told you why."

"Tired of us hiding behind the shield, or some crap like that."

"Yes, something like that," Tails continued, "In fact, my intention was always for Robotnik to collect both of my Chaos Emeralds. Rouge was there to make sure he knew where to send Shadow and to collect information from the inside… among other things."

"Why?" Sonic felt compelled to ask. "I mean, we've spent the last year trying to keep those Emeralds out of his hands!"

Miles smirked, a knowing glint in his eyes.

"That's very true. And that's exactly why Eggman has become so desperate to get them. Once I had Rouge inside Robotnik's core facility, I had her gather information for me. I needed to be absolutely sure before I committed to putting the next Emeralds out for Shadow to try and get it. I studied the blueprints for Helios, and it confirmed my suspicions: Eggman was building a giant reactor, called Eclipse, to both siphon and supercharge the Chaos Emeralds."

"Yeah," Sonic interrupted. "That doesn't sound like a good thing."

"It isn't. In fact, getting the seventh Emerald would have made his flying city untouchable. Even to Super Sonic."

The blue blur gave his former sidekick a knowing look.

"I'm sensing a 'but…' here, right?"

"_But_…" Tails drew out the word. "Robotnik doesn't know something. And neither do you, or Knuckles or Sally."

Sonic listened, waiting.

"The Emerald on the _Nor'easter_ - the former Egg Carrier – wasn't a _Chaos_ Emerald." Tails cupped his hands together. "It was a _Fake_."

* * *

Deep within the Eclipse Chamber, Chaos energies churned and aligned.

Emerald green light raced along the intricate grooves of the Chamber in a latticework of lines and angles. Ruby red followed, making sharp pathways that intersected with green. Blue Iolite came a second later, bubbling along the surface like pebbles skipping over a pond. Pure gold lines ran in strict grids. Solid white dyed the background of the chamber, suffusing across the great hollow sphere.

Violet amethyst spread like the fractal growth of a vine, creeping up from the horizontal circumference of the sphere all the way to the poles. Finally, aquamarine sapphire built up and began to expand, a vicious zig-zag pattern that inched up through the intricate weave of light and power. In the center of the Eclipse Chamber, the blazing white discus of energy flexed and grew.

And warped.

Gold and white turned a blood red.

* * *

Doctor Robotnik, the so called Eggman, felt a tremor run through his great Flying City. Barely keeping steady on his feet, the rotund scientist and dictator grasped the railing of his elevated platform to keep from falling. One by one, monitoring stations lit up with red and yellow and black.

Some turned instantly into static.

"**Warning**," Snively's voice, the voice of Helios, announced. "**Warning**. Chaos Waveform Instability detected within Eclipse Chamber. **Warning**. Instability at critical levels. **Warning**. Instability permutation present in all core systems. **Warning**. Anomalous waveforms detected throughout superstructure. **Warning**. Spatial disruptions present in sectors eleven, twenty nine, fifty four, seventy one and seventy five."

"Helios! Snively!" Eggman roared, backhanding one of the holographic status screens. "What's happening!? What is this?"

Shadow, too, stated to look a bit worried.

"Doctor?" he asked, looking around. He was no technician. None of this made sense! Everything had been fine a moment ago!

"**Warning**. Critical superstructure failures in progress. **Warning**. Implosion events detected in multiple sectors. **Warning**. Shield generators unable to process waveform: safeties engaged. **Warning**. Nuclear reactor five experiencing anomalous events: safeties engaged. **Warning**. Navigation Array unable to compensate for instability."

"Damnit Snively! Helios! Simplify!" Eggman was screaming now. "Simplify Query! Eclipse Chamber status only!"

"**Warning**. Unstable Chaos Waveform. Unable to compensate. Safeties can not engage. Waveform multiplication in progress."

The primary monitor showed a three dimensional projection of a sphere, with a dozen interlocking sections all around it, and then more isolated systems further from the core. A waveform graph on the very top showed seven curving lines moving and changing, unable to synch up.

"**Warning**. Waveform feedback in all systems. Compensators operating at ninety nine percent."

"Sever all relays!" Robotnik cried, holding his head in his hands. "Hurry! Hurry!"

All around the representation of the Eclipse Chamber, systems were becoming outlined in red. Others in bright orange. Almost none were blue.

"**Warning**. Relay Control System damaged."

"I don't care! Execute! Execute!"

"Executing."

On the display, progressive rings around parts of the Eclipse diagram turned solid red, as explosive charges physically severed power lines and connecting relays. Two of the giant complex "spokes" that sprouted from the central spherical chamber turned blue, with bits of yellow. One remained solid orange. Three were now nearly completely red.

"Doctor!" Shadow yelled. "The Chamber! You have to -- "

"I know! I'm -- "

A bright light cut him off.

* * *

Sally watched on the ship's main screen as Helios literally warped from the strain within it. It was a testament to the floating city's construction that it remained intact at all. Entire sections imploded and then vented burning plumes of plasma into the air from the crumpled ruins. Previously unused missile banks buckled and exploded.

A cheer rose up from the humans on the flag bridge.

One remained unmoved by the sight.

"Deep Scan!" Aya Florentine demanded. "Is the city shield down?"

"Shield readings are fluctuating. Erratic…"

"Reading substantial gravity distortions!"

"It'll have to do. Flag to all ships: close at flank speed and engage primary target!" She yelled and swept her hand out in front of her. "Main Cannon! Full Charge!! Fire!"

From the parted bow of the Nor'easter, the glow subsided for all of a quarter second, before erupting as a lancing beam. Helios was the target, and the beam struck true, cutting through already stressed bedrock and bulkheads, slicing like a knife upwards and raking across what remained of the aboveground city. Thousands of tons of metal transitioned instantly into poisonous vapor. Under the intensity of the attack, one of the four massive control towers finally succumbed, damaged beyond the capacity to even hold itself upright. Crashing to the ground, small explosions - merely the size of two story buildings - blossomed across the city and around the base of the tower.

Another cheer broke out among the crew.

"Helm!" Aya commanded, not willing to sit back and celebrate just yet. "Take us about, five degrees port! Targeting! I want lock on that second tower! Primary and Secondary batteries… All ships! FIRE AT WILL!!"

On the sides and top of the air carrier, massive turrets swiveled and locked onto the smoking mass of Helios, still floating in midair. The primaries fired first, launching explosive rocket propelled shells. The secondaries followed soon after, casting out lines of bright red that hit first, carving up the flying city and cutting chunks from its vast bulk. With a loud rapport, missiles launched, filling the air like a volley of giant arrows.

The _Nor'easter_ was not alone, either. A wing of GUN Remnant cruisers closed into a protective sphere around the larger ship, flanked by the distinctly re-colored hulks of Pirated Eggman Armada vessels. Plunging deep into the lines of the enemy to enter knife fighting range, they had suffered terribly throughout the engagement, and continued to do so as enemy fire ripped two of the ships to pieces.

In return, a volley of shielded missiles – capital ship torpedoes - fired from GUN cruisers tore through the protective shields of two loyalist Eggman warships. A series of tremendous explosions savaged the first ship, burning away layers of armor and hull, leaving only a burning skeleton of a ship to fall to the ground below. The other ship disappeared in a bloom of nuclear fire that briefly obscured the mid-day sun.

In the center of it all, Helios burned.

"Was this what you had planned?" Sally wondered, watching the carnage unfold. As with Miles' earlier battle with the Battlebird Armada, it was something mostly beyond her experience. There hadn't been an air battle on this scale on mainland Mobius… probably ever. She unconsciously rubbed her left wrist and remembered Rouge, and the end of their fight. The humans had been in on it the whole time.

Miles had trusted the humans with this fight more than his own people.

Sally also knew she'd be lying to herself if she wasn't also a bit worried for her own sake. The GUN Remnant hadn't proved to be as friendly towards Mobians as the previous civilian administration in Station Square. They cooperated somewhat, but only when it served their own ends, and their new leader had openly expressed rather disturbing opinions and intentions (to say the least).

The fact was that she wasn't familiar with any of the people who now held her captive. They had been careful not to do any real harm in capturing her (with Rouge's help – Sally swore she wouldn't forget that), and she had been treated civilly since then and even taken up to the Flag Bridge to see how the battle progressed. Tails probably had something to do with that, given the bizarre technology and the Chaos Drive down below. If he also controlled the former Eggman airships the humans were fighting alongside, they'd hesitate to do anything to make an enemy of him.

At least for now.

Unfortunately, as civil as the humans were being, they weren't being cooperative either. They had refused her right to communicate with anyone outside the ship, confiscated her Nicole module, and ignored her questions about what was going on and what had happened to Sonic and Tails topside. As leader of the world's Freedom Fighters and Crown Princess of the Kingdom of Acorn, being summarily ignored was not something she was particularly used to.

"Captain!" an officer suddenly yelled. "AWC is detecting movement in the Mobian Fleet! Vectors inbound!"

"Looks like they're tired of sitting and watching us fight," Aya speculated, pointing off to her side. "Bring them up on the port primary! Route the _Tambour_, _St. Angele_, _White Sea _and _Crimson Sea_ to cover that approach! If they think they can stab us in the back **now**, they've got another thing coming!"

"That isn't it!" Sally cried, sensing a disaster in the making. She knew all too well that there were just as many human hating xenophobes along her father's political officers commanding those ships as there were mobian hating humans in the GUN Remnant. Either side could easily see a confrontation as an opportunity, especially with Eggman's great battlestation in flames.

"Please," Sally yelled, once again being ignored. "Let me contact the fleet! My father could be sending them in because he thinks something's happened to me or the Emerald!"

Aya, this time, didn't ignore her.

"It is my understanding that you have no authority over the Royal Air Force."

"I don't," Sally admitted, but quickly added, "But they won't fire on a ship with me on it, will they? Besides, they'll at least listen to me! I have clout and officers loyal to me on those ships!"

"Ooorrr," Aya countered, resting her chin on her steepled fingers. "I could let the remains of Miles' fleet tear itself apart attacking the Eggman ships, while I take this opportunity to wipe out the Royal Air Force. I hear Knothole doesn't have a City Shield anymore, either. I could roll your entire front up to the northlands."

Sally was aghast.

"You…!"

Aya sighed. "I suppose that what I'll be criticized for not doing, anyway. Recall the _Tambour_, _White Sea_, and _St. Angele_. Have Captain Michelson and the _Crimson Sea_ broadcast the following to the approaching ships: Good Hunting. That is all."

Sally all but sighed in relief. For a moment there, it really had looked like…

"Thank you, Captain," she said.

'For not acting like the monsters most Mobians think humans are,' she thought, but diplomatically kept to herself.

"Don't thank me just yet," Aya replied, not bothering to turn to acknowledge the Princess of the Kingdom of Acorn. "If even one of those ships fires on the _Crimson Sea_, I'll gladly finish what the Great War and Doctor Robotnik started."

"Lovely," Sally grumbled, less than pleased with those odds.

* * *

"**Warning**. Enemy commando craft inbound."

"no… no… no no NO! NO!!" Robotnick slammed his fists on his armrests with uncoordinated fury. "My beautiful city! My **Perfect Fortress**! They're **ruining** it!! HELIOS!! RETURN FIRE!!"

"My apologies," Snively's voice spoke for Helios in an emotionless and unconcerned tone, as if his own destruction was of no interest. "All surface emplacements have been destroyed. There is nothing to return fire with."

The command center shook, as more blasts rocked the surface of the flying city, pulverizing what few structures still survived semi-intact. In his hoverchair, the Eggman shook with impotent rage. How had this happened? How had certain victory turned into… into… this disaster!? Grinding his teeth together audibly, he tried to think of some sort of plan of action.

The pounding continued.

"H… Helios…"

"Yes?"

"Status report. Tell me… how fast can you move?"

"Damage to the Control Tower Three has impaired movement. Maneuvering is at 66 percent, linear maximum velocity is at 50 percent of normal, and acceleration is approximately 90 percent."

"Can we outrun the Eggcarrier at normal flank speed?"

"Barring damage to their engines, or catastrophic reactor failure, we can not."

The Eggman's eyebrows twitched. "I see."

Another wave of missiles hit, and the room shook.

"Helios."

"Yes?"

"Reroute all power to propulsion." Robotnik slowly clasped his hands behind his back. "Load Destination: 0628.62 by 0472.43 by 000.20."

"**Warning**. Projected path intersects with minimum altitude. Proceed?"

"Yes. Yes. If this city is doomed, it will not go alone." Eggman closed his eyes and calmed himself. "Acceleration to maximum. Disengage safeties."

"**Warning**. This craft is calculated to exceed maximum controllable velocity in twelve minutes and eighteen seconds. Proceed?"

"Yes."

"Initiating. **Warning**. Collision course detected. **Warning**. Twelve minutes and seventeen seconds before catastrophic failure in Maneuvering Arrays. **Warning**. Landing craft have penetrated Helios Shield perimeter."

Eggman slowly nodded.

"Status of the Egg Assemblers?"

"Currently thirty six are prepped and ready."

"Deploy them immediately before our speed exceeds Mach One," Robotnick said, quietly. "All of them. I want half of them launched at the target destination and the other half in a defensive spread along our trajectory. And… and call back our conventional forces… order them to defend Helios."

"Relaying orders," Helios answered, simply.

"Good. Good!" Eggman's hands wound together anxiously behind his back. "They'll pay for this, Helios. With my last move, I will sweep away every last pawn on the board. They will know terror and despair before they die."

Helios didn't respond.

"Though it takes another year, another decade, I'll rebuild… rebuilt the city… rebuild the legions… stronger than before! Better!"

The deranged and hysterical Eggman kept talking, anyway.

"Yes! They can't kill me, after all! And as long as I live, I can rebuild! I can rebuild it all!" He started to laugh, an intermittent nervous laughter.

Helios still didn't respond.

On one of the screens, a bright beam lanced out, cutting into another control tower. The curved spire resisted for a second, before being consumed. As the middle began to melt under the intense heat of the beam, the top fell down, and then to the side. Upon hitting the ground, it shattered and exploded in a single huge fireball. Around the control room, several screens turned to static.

"Control Tower Four has been destroyed," Helios announced, passionlessly.

"Doctor."

Eggman haltingly glanced over his shoulder. "Yes, Shadow?"

"What about the Emeralds?" Shadow asked, no longer content to stand and watch the madman break down. "Doctor? What about the Emeralds and the Eclipse Chamber?"

Robotnik started to laugh softly.

"Doctor," Shadow repeated. His left arm was still broken, but he paid it no mind. "I can still recall the six Emeralds. I need to know if you can fix the Eclipse Chamber."

Robotnik's laughter petered off.

"Doctor, please, you have to…"

"**Enough**," Robotnik hissed, and turned back to the command screens. "Eclipse is dead. It was a mistake to rebuild it in the first place. I should have known better than to follow in the shoes of that old fool."

Shadow shook his head in denial. "Don't say that. He was your idol, Doctor!"

"He was a suicidal old fool," Eggman yelled. "If he was here, I'd kill him myself!"

Clutching his broken arm, Shadow stared off into the distance.

"Maria…"

"Maria?" Robotnik asked, turning around and stepping down from the dais. "Vanya's little girl? The one with NIDS? She's been dead for years. Get your head out of the past. We have a lot of work to do, **here**, in the present."

Shadow stared up at the towering overlander. "But you knew her, didn't you? She was your cousin."

"I barely knew the little brat." Eggman walked past the dazed hedgehog. "Now come along. And find Rouge while you're at it. We need to find a way out of here."

Shadow spun, holding out his one good hand. A crackling halo of black chaos energy reached out and encircled the Eggman. The giant man pivoted, looking down at the energy twisting around him. Facets of black and red reflected off of the round goggles that concealed his eyes.

"Shadow," Eggman spoke, as if to a toddler. "You know humans can't…"

Blood ran from Shadow's ears and nose.

"Chaos Control!!"

Eggman stumbled, falling back a step. Looking down at his hands, he could see the Chaos Energy trying to enter his body. White smoke began to rise from his fingertips as it found purchase there. Wide eyed, the madman could only watch as it inched down his fingers and over his arms and across his chest. It was burning. It was…

This was…!

Doctor Julian Robotnik, son of Ivo, grandson of Gerald, howled as the very molecules of his body tore apart, teleported to random locations in the room. Shadow couldn't really Chaos Control him, not entirely, not without a Super Form. Instead, he was ripping him apart. A fine dust fell to the floor, the remains of skin and sinew and bone.

"You little worm!" Eggman reached for his formerly loyal servant. His most trusted minion.

His perfect weapon.

He managed one step, and then another, body straining against the gradual disintegration. Layers of skin and bone peeled away. A look of agony, hate and madness on his face, Robotnik reached for the source of it all, and inches from Shadow's throat, he vanished in a puff of black smoke.

Doctor Robotnik, the Eggman, was no more.

Shadow fell to his hands and knees, blood still dribbling from his nose.

"Maria…!" he closed his eyes and rested his head against the cold metal floor. "Maria, I - I don't know what to do! Maria, please! Tell me what to do!"

Rubbing his forehead into the soot that now collected around him, he felt hot tears on his cheeks. Eclipse was gone. Ruined. Destroyed! There was no way to overload it now and punish the sinful world that had taken everything from him. Everything he had worked for since being revived was in shambles. In a matter of minutes, triumph and elation and purpose had been ripped out of his hands. And now, with the Doctor gone…

"Maria! Maria! MARIA!" He wept, rubbing his face into the floor to try and wipe away the tears. "Oh God! Maria, please! Please tell me what to do! I need you! Help me, Maria, please! Please!"

"I'll help you."

Shadow turned his head, just enough to look up.

Mephiles stood just a few feet away, Silver and Blaze by his side.

"You!" Shadow said, stunned.

"I'll help you, Shadow," Mephiles repeated, holding out a strange pentagram shaped box with his right hand. "I know what Maria would have wanted."

Shadow stared at the box. It felt… different. Powerful.

"Let me help you," the crystalline abomination declared. "Together, we will mete out justice… to this flawed and imperfect world…"


	36. A Flawed and Imperfect World i

**Author's Notes:**

Well. Here it is. The final chapter of COA:ACO.

There isn't much to say, really. Hopefully there's a good number of people who have stuck with the story and followed it through all these long chapters! I know it's not exactly a quick story to read through. I hope you find the ending to your liking.

After this, there's "New World Order" - I need to do a few retcons and fixes there, too, to reflect the new Reload story continuity.

Let it begin...

* * *

**"Failures are usually the most conceited of men."  
- D. H. Lawrence**

* * *

THE CYCLE OF AGES

_CHAPTER ELEVEN:_

**A Flawed and Imperfect World**

* * *

Sonic and Tails raced above the surface of the Great Forest at Mach Three.

The high speed Assault GEARS attached to their feet had already taken them most of the way back to Eastern Mobius, topping Sonic's own normal maximum speed of just over Mach One. While each one also sported a protective shield that made the ride bearable for flesh and blood, it also made normal conversation impossible. Even if one of them yelled to another, they would actually physically outrun the sound waves their voices made.

Instead, Tails had given the blue hedgehog hero an earpiece that could be used to receive and transmit radio signals. He hadn't used it much in the trip, taking the opportunity to think things over a bit. He thought briefly back to the makeshift graves the two of them had dug back in that lost forest clearing. By the time they'd finished moving the remains and then washing their hands off in a nearby stream, the GEARS had been waiting for them for a few minutes.

_"This place… Sonic…" Tails had muttered, before they left. "Do me a favor, and never mention it again. To me or anyone."_

What was stranger was that Sonic was certain now how they had gotten there.

Chaos Control.

Tails had used Chaos Control and unconsciously taken them to that place. Sonic had used Chaos Control before, having copied the technique from Shadow a year ago... but it required a Chaos Emerald and it wasn't normally very accurate over long distances. They were nearly a thousand miles from where they had started. It was an insane distance to cover accurately in just one teleport and without an Emerald.

"Sonic?" it was Tails' voice over the radio.

Sonic used his pinky to poke the earpiece and activate the microphone.

"What's up?"

A pause.

"A problem," the kitsune hesitated to explain for a few seconds. "Something's happened back at the battle. We're going to have to change course and head for Knothole."

* * *

Nicole-Typhoon and Nicole-Knothole watched the battle together.

The former was not exactly pleased about sharing her visual and sensory feeds directly with the other her, but the latter had been insistent. Since this immediately involved the safety and welfare of the city of Knothole, Nicole-Typhoon had allowed it. Thus, the two holographic lynxes, nearly identical to one another, stood side by side on the deck of the _HMS Blue Typhoon_.

"Strange," Nicole-Knothole observed.

"Indeed," Nicole-Typhoon agreed.

* * *

Sally Acorn stared at the… cloud - for lack of a better word – that now obscured the burning hulk that was Helios, and that had once been the majority of the city of Robotropolis. Watching it on the main screen of the _Nor'easter_'s Flag Bridge sent an involuntary chill down her spine; it didn't just look strange, it felt _wrong_, even from so far away. It felt evil, almost.

" -- having problems with the radio…"

"Sensor readings within the anomaly are indistinct. We can't get a clear signal."

"Captain! Emergency burst from Mercenary Company Two. Just… screams and cries for help."

"Third Marine Detachment is in that area. They're reporting nothing unusual, just a handful of Eggman robots."

Aya Florentine mulled over the recent turn of events in her Captain's chair.

Just minutes ago, a strange cloud, what had initially assumed to be the product of a chemical fire, had started to spread over the surface of the nearby destroyed Flying City. It had rapidly engulfed most of the quarters of the city and then spread out over the superstructure. Within minutes, it merged with the shattered shield matrix and formed a murky shell that served to block weapons fire and disrupt communications.

That was a problem.

The city was accelerating rapidly and computer projections on its course indicated that it was going to land just short of the existing city of Knothole. To be more exact: it was going to crash into the southern section of Knothole at around four times the speed of sound, utterly annihilating everything for miles. Computer projections of the impact indicated a resulting crater more than nine miles wide and half a mile deep and an impact measuring more than three thousand megatons of TNT.

"Mobian Fleet Intel is informing us that they have lost contact with multiple squads in Sector Four…"

"The _Tomahawk_ is moving to reinforce that sector…"

"Detecting launch signatures within the city! Above and below! Too large to be escape pods…?"

"Magnify!"

A secondary screen shows what looked like a giant egg, launching from the underside of the flying city. Unable to keep pace with its mothership, the egg shaped craft immediately started falling behind. It was also losing altitude.

Sally watched them with trepidation, thinking much the same as the captain of the _Nor'easter_ and her crew. They couldn't be escape pods. Why so many? Why so large? Why falling to the ground in a controlled descent and not flying away? Bombs also seemed likely, but there would be no reason to drop bombs directly below the city.

They had to be some sort of weapons system.

"Fleet Command to Captain Seelye. Direct fire to the nearest drop pod," Aya commanded, obviously suspicious. If they were bombs, it was best not to try and set them off in the middle of the Fleet. "Don't let it hit the ground."

Immediately, one of the GUN Destroyers turned towards the new target.

Seconds later, a beam of light carved into one of the giant white eggs. To everyone's surprise, the egg wasn't cleaved in two. It was, however, shot off course by the kinetic energy and sent into an uncontrolled tumble. A second later, additional flak and the explosions of rockets and missiles filled the air with superheated gas and fragmentary death. Faint silver lines and mechanical looking imperfections marred the surface of the egg, and small reentry rockets adjusted the path of their fall, directing them out from under Helios' massive shadow.

"Have Destroyer Wing Theta come about and destroy those things," Aya order, and then she saw something new appear on another screen.

The pods that had launched from the top of Helios had ejected ports from their sides, and were taking off at a much greater speed. They seemed to be headed along the same course as the flying city itself, but accelerating even more rapidly. A map appeared in a corner of the screen, as the computer projected their course.

Knothole.

"Captain!" Sally yelled over the dim of voices. "I would request that you let me go to Knothole. I need to oversee the evacuation of the city."

Aya's light blue eyes settled on the troublesome Mobian Princess.

"After breaking onto my ship with the intention of crippling it, you want me to let you go?" she asked, and turned her attention back to the battle. "How amusing."

Sally tried to rally some kind of counterargument, but knew she didn't really have one. While she could claim that the Chaos Emerald belonged to the Kingdom of Acorn, Miles had defected with it for all intents and purposes. They were under no obligation to return it. If a human defected with something the Kingdom needed or wanted, they certainly wouldn't return it without a fight. Aya had every right to hold her as a prisoner of war, and nothing to gain by letting her go.

"I thought, with our recent cooperation…" Sally started to argue.

"That good-will only goes so far," Aya cut her off. "I suggest you don't test it."

"Do you think you can stop the city before it crashes?" Sally asked. If they could, then that was all that mattered.

"Perhaps. We will **try**." Aya tapped a finger on the armrest of her chair. "Beyond that, who can say?"

Sally frowned – those weren't exactly very reassuring words.

"Take her to the conference room," the Captain of the _Nor'easter _ordered. "You can have your say from there while you remain our… guest, Princess."

* * *

Deep within the wilds of the Great Forest stood a building of mortar and wood built in the old style. Obscured by the tallest trees on the planet, it hid from prying eyes. It was a relic of the past, this secluded estate. Past the ramparts, and the main gate, past the armed sentries and the royal guards, and deep in a bunker carved out of the bedrock below, lay a hall. Over it hung the black-on-white heraldic crest of the House St. John. This was, for the moment, the Court of the Kingdom of Acorn, the once proud duchy now in exile.

Here sat its King.

The throne was carved wood; a deep mahogany shaped so perfectly that it almost looked like the chair had grown into its shape instead of being cut to it. It was the seat of a Noble Lord, however, not a Great King. Nearby, a smaller throne was left empty, its royal occupant away in quarters. From where he sat, King Maximilian Acorn felt uneasy and overly anxious. In the hall, far from where their liege brooded, minor mobians of the court whispered and conversed, their tones quick and hushed.

They were waiting… for the news.

Then, all conversation ceased, as hurried footsteps became distinct from some distance off. The great wooden doors to the hall swung open, and a skunk entered, a paper held tightly in his violet-gloved right hand. This was one of House St. John's retainers, tasked with the honor of relaying messages to and from the Court. He slowed to a brisk walk as he entered the hall and quickly kneeled before standing back up and clearing his throat.

"My King, this coded message was just received from Knothole General Command," the skunk raised his voice so that he could be heard by all present. "It reads: numerous attacks repulsed on-ground and in-air south of city. Massive explosions. Fortress Helios under fierce fire from elements of Royal Air Force. Enemy in retreat!"

On his throne, Maximilian nodded, once, as the room erupted into cheers.

"It continues: Helios damaged, but not destroyed. Pursuing all targets. Seeking total annihilation of enemy forces. Helios continues towards city. Fearless ground forces have engaged the enemy and are driving towards control room and navigation controls. Will attempt safe deceleration and capture of city."

The skunk then concluded:

"General staff requests orders regarding human invaders and the Crown Princess, presumed captured and held on overlander flagship."

The Court muttered and whispered amongst themselves at the scandal and disgrace of being captured by the enemy. Many took the opportunity to place blame on her two would-be protectors and escorts, who had promptly been beaten off or incapacitated. Others pointed out how it had been a mistake to place the Kingdom's faith in a two tailed mutant with dubious ties and loyalty to the Crown. Some gleefully observed that the Princess was as reckless as ever, and had put her own desire for adventure and confrontation above the needs of the Family Royal.

The King held out his hand, and the other mobians bowed his head in silence.

"I do not believe my daughter is in any more danger where she is, than where she would run off to be," he wisely observed. "Have the Generals watch the humans for any mischief, but do not oppose them if their battle against Helios carries them deeper into Our Lands. For the time being, our majesty will give them leave to trespass."

The court muttered its consent and agreement (as always).

"As to My city of Knothole," the King continued. "We are entrusting its defense to our charge, Miles Prower, whose renegade actions were taken with our approval. We have forgiven the boy any transgressions committed in our name."

It was a complete fabrication, of course, but Max didn't let that get in the way of appearances. As always, the court 'oooh'ed and 'aah'ed at his wisdom and foresight this time perhaps being genuinely impressed by what they took at face value to be the Source honest truth. It would only take a stray word from Miles to completely ruin the illusion that everything had gone according to plan, but _that_ had already been smoothed over.

The boy wanted to make sure Knothole was saved, and he was willing to compromise to do it. That was fine, as far as His King was concerned. If he did manage to save Knothole somehow, then the King would be able to claim another great victory. If Miles failed, then he would be properly censured and punished for failing His Lord and King.

Even if Knothole was destroyed, it was only an inconvenience. After all, it wasn't as if any of the Royal Family were there at the moment. King Maximilian smiled to himself. The other mobians of the court were still celebrating and speaking loudly among themselves.

"Go now," he dismissed the messenger. "Monitor the situation and keep me informed."

The skunk bowed, and quickly made his exit.

'The only potential problem is if the boy continues to run about like a rogue,' the old King thought. 'We haven't had time to find a way to restrain his potential ambition… that blue fool was harmless enough but this boy is a potential threat to the throne...'

Shifting in the dais, King Maximilian did not feel as comfortable on a kingly, or even noble, throne as he had in the past. He knew the weight of history would not judge him kindly, and that, in the annals of the Acorn Line, his legacy would be fifty years of war and death. Even his economic and political reforms were quietly criticized, though never publicly. Perhaps that was why he felt so small; perhaps that was why he felt like he was only filling in the title of King for someone greater.

At one point, he had hoped that would be his son.

But Elias was a weakling of a Prince, without the fire or the steel to properly rule. The boy would likely cave in when faced with the first crisis to land at his feet. Maximilian sighed at that. He knew that Sarah – his dear Princess Sally - could have made an excellent queen. She could've made a peerless King, too, and a credit to her line… if only she had been male. If only she had taken her responsibilities to the Line of Kings more seriously.

No: in his daughter, he saw the fracturing of his Kingdom.

She was strong, and she was intelligent, but Princess Sally Acorn was not wise in the ways of kingly governance and she was not a pragmatist. Her ideals would be the undoing of the empire founded over eight hundred years previous, by the First Acorn – her great ancestors – Xerxes the Golden and Alexander the Founder. The weight of history weighed heavily on King Maximilian… was he truly to be the Last of the Acorns?

No: he vowed. No!

He would not be the last! His reign may be known, in future years, as one of fire and pain, but it would not be the last. Even as he sat, not in the Golden Hall of Kings in the Grand Palace but in the Wooden Hall of a Minor Noble of the former court, Maximilian had pride in his lineage, and in his Dynasty. What it needed was strength. What it needed was respect. What it needed was power.

An Alliance, with the Devil, if need be.

The Devil Fox.

The Barbarian from the north that his great ancestors had warred against could, in turn, be beaten and absorbed by diplomacy. It had been proven in the past. Maximilian's own most esteemed ancestor, Melchoir the Mighty, had proven it when it annexed the Southern Barbarian Tribes after the Final Northern Border War. Yes: that would be a fitting legacy!

It would have been better if General D'Coolette still lived, for his wisdom in the designs of the barbarian fox were always enlightening, but the Acorn King of Mobius knew he could get by without his old friend's advice. He smiled at the thought. From the moment he had seen the youngster called 'Tails,' the King had a feeling that the boy was destined for greatness – the sage words of the old Court Hierophant, Merlin, confirmed it. Merlin was well versed in the Old Religion and the Old Ways, and his prophecies never failed, even if most of his supposed magic was, in fact, mere parlor tricks and not the equal of a true mage like Ixis Naugus.

The fox, Miles Prower, would develop into a leader and warrior.

He would be a wonderful pawn.

The Kingdom of Acorn as a whole would benefit from it and grow stronger through it. The kitsune foxes would be drawn, slowly but steadily, into mobian society, just as their one-tailed brethren and cousins had. They would be assimilated and strengthen the whole of the Acorn Demesne. Their numbers, he knew, were small enough not to dramatically affect a political change in the Dynasty, though it would require a restructuring of the House of Nobles.

And a few _sacrifices_.

Sitting on his throne, King Maximilian scoffed under his breath. Indeed, sacrifices were the bread and butter of politics, weren't they? Sadly, that was something his daughter, in her naive idealism, didn't recognize. She refused to put aside her relationship with that blue hedgehog for the good of the lineage and the strength of the Kingdom. She did not court the support of the remaining noble houses, preferring to deal with her group of anarchist "Freedom Fighters" directly.

She refused to be _used_.

She didn't understand that to be used was not a bad thing, so long as it strengthened and perpetuated something greater than the individual. Something like the Kingdom. Something like the Name and Dynasty set down by her ancestors. That was what was of paramount importance! Growing up outside of the court for so long… had dulled her senses and turned her from what she was born to be. If Elias could not be brought around to become the King he was born to be, then Sally would become the Queen she was bred to be.

Yes.

Through her blood.

Three generations removed from the youngest generation of Royals, from their mother's side, there had been a fox. Alicia's mother had been carefully chosen from the northern nobles not for her beauty, or her mind, but for her bloodline. They had the Princess tested at birth, and though that fox blood did not flow in her as strongly as it did her brother (with that tail of his), it was there. She was compatible. She was fertile. D'Coolette's "Last Resort" plan would work where all the others failed!

She would further the Kingdom.

The old King smiled at the thought. With a new empire stretching across Mobius Major, and even coming to assimilate the northlands, the Kingdom would once again straddle the planet as it was meant to be. The humans were weaker than they had been in centuries, their numbers and resources depleted. They, too, would be crushed and brought to heel. Then the echidna, and even the wayward dingo. It was the inevitable triumph of the Acorn Dynasty to rule over all the lands of Mobius, from horizon to horizon.

Through her, through them, that conquest was a possibility.

'Let the boy taste power and authority. Let him find it to his liking. If he can save this city and prevent this disaster, he may well be… the son I never had… an heir to remake the world!'

Yes, such a future was worth any sacrifice, even that of his daughter's happiness. Even his own pride took back seat. The Kingdom, the Empire, the Source… demanded it! If it meant the children of the Royal Family had two tails for a few generations, then that too, was a small price to pay for power and glory.

'Impress me, boy,' he thought, brooding on his throne. 'Prove yourself worthy, and conquer the world by my side!'

* * *

**Knothole**

This was not what Sonic had expected when they got back home.

Tails, on the other hand, did not look surprised. He walked right up to the three dingo dressed in military fatigues, no hesitation in his movements. Sonic watched, ready to intervene if need be, but was instead stunned when the three dingo saluted and stood at attention. Miles stood face to face with the foreign mobians, and Sonic felt oddly… out of place.

"Lieutenant," Miles said, crisply. "Good to see you and the others are here. I never doubted the word of the dingo."

"You'll want to see the General." The dark furred dingo, with bars on his shoulder replied in a respectful tone. "This way, sir."

Sonic, not anticipating trouble, caught up to Miles and the dingo as they started to walk into the town. There were dingo and wolves and foxes everywhere, and virtually all of them were armed. To Sonic's silent relief, he saw the regular town militia and Freedom Fighters were also around, though the situation was obviously a tense one.

"Yo, what the Hell is going on here?" he finally growled, elbowing Tails in the side to get his attention. Miles held up his hand in response, and inclined his head.

"One moment, please. I'll explain everything in just one moment."

Sonic gritted his teeth, but accepted what the kitsune said. Tails had to know how he hated being kept out of the loop. If there was something going on of this level of importance, he should have at least heard passing reference to it. Some of the animals looked like Freedom Fighters, at least, though their uniforms were slightly different, but the dingo… Sonic had seen some of them before. Not outside Angel Island anyway.

They were old enemies of the echidna. Knuckles had told them of the problems that had been caused both by the old Echidna-Dingo Wars, and more recently, by the destruction of Dingo City's pocket universe. Shortly after a nuclear exchange between the two, both Dingo city and Echidnapolis had been saved by being shunted into two separate parallel pocket universes adjacent to the Special Zone. However, a few years ago, the universes had become unstable and started to merge, both into each other and into the real world. In the end, only one could survive the transition, and circumstances had favored the echidnas. So the dingo had left their city for Echidnapolis, and it had returned to the floating Island.

All was not harmonious between the dingo and echidna, however.

Far from it.

More to the point: the dingo had never gotten involved in the fight against Robotnik. Like the echidna, they considered it an 'off-island' problem. What were they doing here, now? He'd never heard anything to suggest they had given their allegiance to the Freedom Fighters or the Kingdom of Acorn. After a few minutes, the three mobians came to a large green and brown camouflaged tent set up in the old part of Knothole, near the Ring Pool and the Founding Freedom Fighter housing. The area, more than the rest of the city was swarmed by dingo, but before Sonic even got the chance to worry about that further, the ground shook, and something large and robotic stomped out from behind the large tent.

His eyes widened, and his body tensed to…

"Sonic!" Miles' voice stopped him before he could instinctively jump. He looked quickly to the two tailed fox, and then back at the robot, colored green and gunmetal.

"Don't sweat it." The fox chuckled softly. "That's one of ours."

"One of ours?" Sonic eyed the walking war machine suspiciously. It was only slightly humanoid, and as Sonic looked at it more closely, he made the connection. Aside from a few structural differences…

"It looks sort of like the Tornado Two. In its second transformation."

"Exactly." The kitsune called Tails grinned. "One of many."

"Miles?" A gruff voice interrupted them, and both mobians turned to its source: a large dingo in green and gray fatigues and close cut blonde hair contrasting brown fur. He was a massive animal with arms as thick as small trees. The dingo that had let them to the tent immediately saluted at this new dingo's approach.

"General!" He snapped, back ramrod straight.

"At ease, Lieutenant. I'll take it from here." General Helmut von Stryker dismissed his subordinate, and walked up to his apparent comrade in arms.

"Good of you to come to promptly, General." Miles held out his hand, and Stryker grasped it in a rough handshake.

"Yes. You know, when I arrived I thought the other two tailed fox was you. But his tails were…"

"Yes. Yes. Tempest has black tips. He's also still a good head taller than me."

Miles gave the General's hand one last shake, and the two let go. The dingo leader then turned to Sonic, and inclined his head respectfully. He then motioned for them to follow him inside the tent, past busy mobians carrying machinery and boxes. Deeper inside, they came to a small conference room. The assembled (remaining) Freedom Fighters were waiting there, and so was Tempest, surprisingly, along with the City Representative.

Miles noted that they didn't look happy.

Well, Tempest looked indifferent, and the others seemed more surprised than anything. That pig, Hamlin, the representative for the City Nobility looked like he wanted nothing more than to leave. It was Sally who didn't look happy. Unfortunately for her, she was only present via vid-screen. Nicole-Knothole appeared serenely calm. As General Stryker and Sonic stepped to the side, Miles scratched his chin.

Finally he spoke. "I suppose you think I owe you all an explanation."

Sally glared at him through the conference screen. "That would be very considerate of you, Miles."

She _was_ angry, it seemed.

"Ok. I get it. You're pissed off. Not to be rude, but you're just going to need to get over it," The fox began, sweeping his hand and motioning to all those present.

"I'm not going to apologize for doing what I felt, and still feel, needs to be done. I'm not here to argue with any of you. I'm not here to debate. I'm here to deal with the situation. After that, you're free to do whatever you want." Tails looked at each of them in turn. "Understood?"

Some of the assembled mobians grumbled, but acquiesced.

"As, um, as the, uh…" Hamlin tried to speak up.

"Yes. You're free to leave the city," Tails answered the question he knew the pig had been hesitant to ask. "You and the rest of the nobility will be shipped out by air carrier."

The speaker for the city nobles nodded quickly. "But…"

"There will be room for personal effects as well. The evacuation won't inconvenience the noble houses any more than it has to." Miles gave the pig a stare that resembled nothing so much as a man forced to pick his way through garbage. "Just nod your head throughout the rest of the meeting if you understand."

Hamlin frowned at the insult, but didn't make a scene.

"You see?" Tails asked. "This is how you handle the nobility. Very easy. Now: let's get to what's important. Rotor - Bunnie and Antoine?"

The walrus shook his head sadly. "Still in critical condition. We - we could probably try and plug Bunnie back into a refitted body, we do have a spare, but I don't think she could fight in her condition. She's totally withdrawn. It was pretty terrible back there."

Tails nodded at the bad news.

"We'll do what we can for them. Make sure they're evacuated as soon as they're stable." He quickly moved onto the next issue. "Sally, Captain Florentine tells me you want to leave the ship."

"You're damn right I do!" Sally growled, finally given an opportunity to vent her fury.

"I can understand your request, and if it were up to just me, I'd let you go," Tails replied, ambivalent. "But the King has already requested that you remain where you are, for your own safety. GUN also wants to hold onto you until the situation resolves itself."

"You can't keep me here!" Sally yelled, shaking the video feed for a moment. "I should be in Knothole! It's my responsibility!"

"I'm sorry. The matter is out of my hands," Tails concluded.

"Tails, listen to me -- "

"Please drop the subject," he stated, calmly. "Or I will cut your communications link with this meeting. I'd rather not do that, but I will not allow disruptive behavior. The situation is tense enough as it is."

Sally menaced the screen with a scowl, but nodded once.

"Fine."

"Good," Tails moved on. "Nicole. Status of the Combined Fleet?"

The holographic lynx spoke up, succinctly relaying the latest information, "Twelve Cruisers Operational, four heavily damaged. Twenty Seven Destroyers Operational, Five lightly damaged, Two heavily damaged. _Nor'easter_ Dreadnaught still eighty four percent functional."

"They've been fighting for hours," he noted. "Robots don't tire, but Aya has reported that her men are on the verge of exhaustion. Has there been any success in shooting through that new black shield?"

"No," Nicole answered crisply. "All excited particle beam attacks, even the main gun of the _Nor'easter_, have been repulsed. Missiles have also proven ineffective. Commando-class destroyers can still penetrate, but sensors indicate that the shield is growing thicker and stronger. My estimates are that it will become effectively impenetrable in forty two minutes."

"Hold on," Sonic choose that moment to speak up. "I thought that trick of yours took out the city shield around that thing? And why's it still a problem, anyway?"

Everyone stared at him like he'd been under a rock (or lost in the woods) for the last three hours. Sonic looked around at them.

"What?" he asked.

Tails quickly tried to explain, "Shortly after we used Chaos Control, Shadow took the trap Emerald back to Helios. As planned, this caused an uncontrolled reaction within the Eclipse chamber. The shields went down, and the fleet began bombardment. However, before the city could be knocked out of the air some sort of anomaly appeared. This is the 'black shield' I mentioned."

"I see," Sonic said. "But… why are we meeting here, then? We should have gone to meet up with the ships."

Miles frowned and crossed his arms. "Unfortunately, Helios also accelerated away from the battle. It has already reached Mach One and is continuing to speed up, completely out of control. We have a little more than an hour before it crashes into Knothole."

"An hour before…!" Sonic whistled. "Wow."

"That's putting it lightly," the kitsune agreed. "Nicole, have the _Blue Typhoon_ sortie and bring up the Royal Air Force. Continue bombardment and have them get more boots on the ground inside the city. Focus on taking out the navigation arrays."

"You're sending more men onto that thing?" Sally asked, speaking up. Unlike before, she seemed to have mostly buried her indignation and frustration with the situation.

"Let me clear up what I plan to do," Miles cleared his throat and faced the assembly. "We have no way to stop the city's momentum or destroy it entirely. Controlling the arrays will only but us more time. As you know, the Chaos Emerald I left exposed on the _Nor'easter_ was a fake – an elaborate forgery I made, using one of the Angel Island Super Emeralds. I still have the seventh Emerald, and with it, I intent to gather the six Emeralds that still reside within Helios."

"A Super transformation?" Sonic asked, brightening up at the chance to cut loose (and contribute to the fight).

"Yes and no," the former sidekick explained. "We have three options. The first is to use Chaos Control to teleport pieces of Helios down to the ground safely, in sections, and over an uninhabited area. The second option is to move it, whole cloth, into space. However, it must also be moved into a precise orbit that won't decay and bring it back down onto our heads."

"Can't you just move it into deep space or something?" Sonic asked. "That doesn't sound hard."

"Momentum is still conserved, even when transported using Chaos Control. If you move it into deep space anywhere within thousands of miles of Mobius, it could well end up crashing back down with many times the force it would have now."

"Ah. That would be bad."

"Very. The third option," Tails took a deep breath. "If Chaos Control fails, we will need to force the city down with an explosion. Only four gigaton rated warheads were ever produced, and all four were used against the Black Arms comet years ago. No one has the facilities to produce that much antimatter anymore. However… with enough Chaos Energy, I can convert that into Ring Energy, and then into a Ring Bomb of sufficient magnitude."

"Sounds like trading one gigantic explosion for another slightly smaller one," Sonic observed, and quite keenly, too.

"Sadly, that's actually very accurate." Miles concluded. "Given either of these three scenarios, I'm the only one who can make them work. Even though Sonic can use Chaos Control, he would have no ability to calculate the projected reentry or orientation of the city, either into a stable orbit or into a controlled landing. I'll need to be in a transformed state to Chaos Control that much mass."

The magnitude of the problem, and the only solution anyone had, was daunting.

"I'll help, of course," Sonic spoke up. "You need guys gathering the Emeralds, right?"

"Yes. Also…" for the first time, Miles hesitated to speak. "Also, Rouge is somewhere in the city. She may be near the Emeralds, or buried in rubble. I haven't heard from her. Finding her is also a priority."

"She was acting on my orders," he quickly reminded them. "And she risked her life for us working on the inside like she did."

"What about city defenses?" von Styker asked, speaking practically. "We have reports of incoming assault craft: those egg shaped things. Several have landed outside the city and are unloading troops."

"They can't be allowed to interfere with the evacuation," Sally said, and Tails nodded in silent agreement.

"Why are all these dingo here, anyway?" Sonic asked, too curious to let it pass. "Knux would be totally freaking out if he saw them swarming over the place like this."

General Stryker scowled at the tone of 'these dingo.'

"Early this year, I took a trip to the Floating Island," Tails answered. "One of several such visits. I had already finished modifications on my Tornado Two and secured a sizeable amount of funds and favors from your father, Sally. What I required, then, was a source of labor to begin mass production of a version of my Tornado Two, called the Cyclone. Those are the war machines you have seen assembled outside."

"You're right about Knuckles, Sonic, but whatever history the dingo have with the echidna is completely irrelevant. The echidna have already made their decision to sit out the war, and while I would like to be able to call Knuckles and the Chaotix my friends, that doesn't mean I share their allegiances or priorities. If the devil was willing to help us win this war, then I would gladly make a deal with him."

"The devil?" Stryker asked, raiding an eyebrow.

"Just a figure of speech," Miles replied. "The dingo are here to help, and they're here at my request."

"And what did they get in return for all this?" Sally asked, on the ball as ever. Favors rarely came without a price tag, somewhere along the line.

"Part of the Southwestern Continent and Cat Country," Stryker answered.

"What? Those are the lands of Mercia," Sally began to say. "You can't…"

"I did not promise them all of Mercia," Tails corrected her. "Only the fringe lands west of Albion. I mostly just ceded Cat Country. The King found it a good deal, trading away land he didn't even own."

"But how?"

"We were given the Underboss codes for that region," Stryker responded. "They appear genuine. We now have all the forces we need there to make it our new homeland. For that, there is no dingo who would not be willing to fight and die."

Sally seemed, at least for a moment, truly shocked silent.

"Just…" she stammered. "By the Source…"

"General," Tails said with a sigh. The conversation was obviously wearying. "Protect the evacuation transports. I will have all available MAF and Freedom Fighter forces transferred to your battlefield command. Rotor and Nicole can assist you with anything you need."

The two nodded; for them, the meeting was mostly formality.

"Except for the nobles, and those on the proscribed list, feel free to conscript as many of the citizenry as you feel necessary," he added, eyes closed. He didn't sound either happy or sad about giving the order.

"Conscription?" Sally gasped. "Most of Knothole's population is civilian! They don't know how to fight!"

Miles gave her a sidelong look. "I've arranged for enough weapons - guns, grenades, anti-tank rockets - to arm even the women and children of Knothole to the teeth… I'm sure the General here will only need a couple thousand men to assist the Dingo Legion. After all, if I fail and if those transports can't take off, they'll die anyway."

"Tails," Sally said, her voice much softer than before.

The fox frowned, detecting pity in those dulcet tones.

He growled low in his throat and narrowed his eyes. "As I said, this isn't up for vote or debate. Knothole is hereby placed in a state of martial law while we evacuate. Sonic and I will join the assault on the Helios platform with the seventh Chaos Emerald."

"You may do as you please; the Council of Nobles consents. Can we go now?" Hamlin asked, anxious to be dismissed so he could join the evacuation of the city nobility. Tails nodded, and the former Freedom Fighter made an exit, trying vainly to preserve some shred of his dignity.

"Tempest," Tails turned to the one mobian present who had not yet spoken at all. "Are you going to leave, or fight?"

The older kitsune scratched the back of his neck and yawned.

"What these southerners do isn't really my business," he said, bluntly, honestly. "But I think fighting still has some appeal. It could make for an interesting story."

Tails smirked. "Good to hear. Sonic?"

"Gimme a minute," the blue blur replied, motioning over to Sally's image on the communications screen. Rotor took that moment to stand up.

"I'll have my staff keep the transports running as long as we can," he said.

"I will provide assistance around the city." Nicole simply winked out, her holographic image dissolving.

"We leave for Helios in five minutes," Tails told them as they filed out. Without another word, he and General Stryker left the room.

"Do you think they will cooperate?" The dingo commander asked, walking alongside the kitsune. "And what you do if they don't? Even one of them could stir up trouble among the local Freedom Fighters. Especially the Princess, if she can get an outside line."

"I'm well aware of that," Miles replied in a low, dangerous tone of voice. "Appropriate measures have already been taken."

"There have also been some reports of looting in the city."

"Shoot them, arrest them, whatever. Handle it however you see fit," Tails said, not sparing it a second thought. "Just remember, while I am free to do as I please, you are technically a mercenary captain in the Army of the Kingdom of Acorn."

"I will keep that in mind," the General paused a moment, then asked, "Rouge. Do you really think she's alive?"

Miles expression turned introspective. "I know she is."

Stryker looked less than convinced. "Really?"

"Absolutely."

-----

"Targets painted!"

"Missiles away!" Konya thumbed the fire button, and to his left, six mini-missiles launched from their missile pack like a swarm of angry hornets. He quickly flipped another switch to detach the external missile packs. Seated below him, a female lupine named Karie did most of the piloting, letting him focus on gunnery and systems management. Most of the Mecha that had been manufactured by the dingo under Miles' agreement were single seat versions: the Cyclone-B series. A few, though, were in the older two-seat arrangement: the Cyclone-A series.

These were used for fire support.

Something that Konya was silently glad for. He didn't exactly relish the idea of getting in closer to the ranks of enemy Combots, which now seemed as thick as grass on a field. Still, their role was vital: to defend the approach the reinforcements would take to arrive at the battlefield, as well as fill in for anti-air and anti-armor as needed. Konya looked around at the controls and felt intimidated… but also anxious. Excited.

He was destroying Combots!

He… they… were winning!

"We're out of missiles." Karie whistled softly at the number of vectors and targets on her displays. "And it's still a target rich environment. Looks like more incoming. Warm up the Ion Cannon."

"Charging!"

Konya let Karie set their mecha into position, as he raised and adjusted the aim of the Cyclone mecha's shoulder mounted particle cannon. It charged up with a soft hum before a blue light signaled its readiness to fire. On his Heads up Display, numerous inward bound Shadowbots were painted by targeting lasers and radar, each one framed by a box and a pair of brackets.

"Firing!" He barked, and held down the trigger.

The heavy ion cannon fired in extremely short pulses, making it appear almost like a solid beam. Charged particles erupted from the cannon assembly at over ten kilometers per second, as the 'beam' auto-traced from one of the painted targets to the next, drawing a line in fire and destruction across the sky. The Shadowbots had been descending to try and gain a foothold behind the scattered, but advancing, units of Cyclone-B mechas.

They failed.

Time and time again.

In the distance, the great landed bulk of one of the Egg Factories (as they'd been dubbed in the field) continued to churn out robots and hastily constructed legions of badniks. Two of them seemed to be mass producing a new Combot Legion practically on the spot. Two others were further back, working on larger assault robots.

On queue, a gigantic spider-mech reared up, firing missiles and beams up into the sky. Answering bolts blasted down from above, shattering the giant robot and reaping a terrible toll on the countryside. A dark shadow passed over Konya' and his Cyclone: one of the many circling airships. This one was a mere destroyer, and its design and markings indicated it was part of the Mobian Royal Air Force.

Fire shot up at the destroyer, painting it with orange and red explosions.

"Cannon cells are discharged," Karie confirmed. "Restarting charging cycle… you ready to move out? We're hitting the next hill."

"Right…" Konya saw another bright blue stream of fire to his left, and let it distract him for a second or two. "Ready!"

Unlike the lieutenant, this was all quite new to him. He had hours of simulated combat, but nothing real. One of the air corps fresh recruits, his only field experience was in a handful of live fire training exercises. His pilot, Karie, was a veteran who had been with the program for months.

Konya checked the scanners. There was more inbound. Much more inbound!

"Painting targets!"

"An aerial flank attack. Cannon is only thirty three percent charged. Better strap yourself in nice and tight!" As Karie spoke, the mecha shifted position. Konya watched as the experienced Cyclone pilot activated the secondary weapons systems, and maneuvered the war machine into a different position. As it broke into a run, he heard Karie activate the Comm. System.

"This is Hotel Six to Hotel Platoon. We have incoming at T minus Thirty seconds! Hold position and Guard Golf Platoon! Hotel Three and Two – find defilade and provide suppression fire!"

Konya heard sounds of affirmation from the other members of their Five Mech platoon and felt bit out of place. They had worked together before, trained together before, and he was the new guy. He was also the only feline in what was an all-lupine group. The fact that canine breeds dominated the Militum air corps had not gone unnoticed by some.

He suddenly wondered something.

"Lieutenant?"

The mech's pace didn't slow. "Yeah?"

"You were one of the first volunteers, right? he asked, having known that much already. "Is it alright if I ask why you signed up?"'

Karie didn't answer immediately.

"I was a member of the Silver Moon Pack." she paused again, but decided to finish while they had the chance. "Like most of the Wolf Packs, Silver Moon was… well, after that… I kind of drifted. Went to a few Freedom Fighter groups but didn't fit in anywhere. I had some piloting experience from before, so the corps singled me out for recruitment. They said it would be a chance to take the fight to the heart of the enemy."

"Any one of you could get a shot at the Eggman himself?"

"That was the sales pitch."

Konya could understand that: he'd been pulled in by the very same promise.

"Heads up! I'm bringing us into close quarters!"

Karie kept the mech running, even as she leveled the left arm and began to fire with the 30mm autocannon. From nearby, other members of the Platoon also opened fire on the incoming wave of robots, and a second later; explosions shook the ground as the enemy returned fire. Wanting to contribute something, Konya grimly activated and took control of the small machine gun mount on the left shoulder of the war machine.

The swarm of robots came in viciously, strafing the ground and circling before trying to find cover of their own. Wielding a lighter weapon, Konya concentrated on picking off the E-1002 series 'sniper' robots that got in range. Other mecha, also moving as they fired, started to put up a smoke screen and broadcast electronic jamming, trying to fool the robot sensors. Suddenly, the frame of the mech shuddered, as it passed through an explosion that would have turned an entire squad of mobians into so much kibbles and bits.

Then, before Konya could draw another breath, a fireball erupted from behind and to the right. He heard a strangled cry from one of the mech pilots over the open communications system, followed by a half second of transmitted static. Panning his view using the HUD – his best connection to the world outside the armored cockpit – he saw the mangled husk of a Type-A Cyclone smoldering and burning, little blue sparks occasionally flickering from broken wires.

"Hotel Four. Lieutenant Dirk and Sergeant Hanley," Karie said, as if reading his thoughts. "They're dead. We'll be too, if you let yourself get distracted…"

'She's right,' he reminded himself.

"Just keep us moving," Konya said, as he refocused on the fight at hand. "And I'll keep shooting!"

Suddenly the entire mech whirled, and Karie fired, picked off a charging Shadowbot. Under the hail of autocannon fire, it broke apart and fell to the ground in pieces. Immediately she switched to another target, an E-series robot, leading her fire until the robot spun, burning, into the ground where it crashed and exploded. Looking up, Konya saw just what they had tried to prevent.

"They're massing to attack the transports!"

Above them, the low flying robots were joining formation to rush forward and seize the airspace behind the teams of mechs. Lightly armed and armored personnel carriers carried the mobian troops into the battlefield. Most were unloading their troops before heading into Knothole to assist in the evacuation. They could hold their own for a little while with their self-defense armament, but against concentrated firepower, they wouldn't last long.

"We need to break up those formations!" Konya yelled.

"This is Hotel Leader to Golf Leader! Open fire on painted targets! We don't have time to wait for an Alpha strike with the ICans! You have to disrupt them now!"

A second later, a reply came over the radio: "Roger, Hotel Leader."

No sooner had Konya heard the words than he saw bright blue lines of light draw out from assorted locations. They cut across the sky, bisecting robot formations with a trail of explosions. Three of them, followed a few seconds later by two more. Then, one and then another, from individual mecha in Hotel Platoon. The damage done was terrible, and the robots circled, making themselves less attractive targets for beam weapon attack.

"They're starting to learn," Konya said, softly.

Karie apparently heard him. "What's that?"

"They're staggering their formations, grouping themselves less tightly then before," the feline explained. "It's making attacks with the ion cannons less effective."

Karie frowned, realizing the truth of his observation. The cannons relied on the ability to paint a line from one target to the next. The beam itself generally only lasted a few seconds, or several thousand pulses. It was extremely effective against dense clusters of the enemy, where the wasted time drawing the beam from one target to the next was minimal. Wide formations, however, made it far less effective.

"This is Hotel Leader to Golf Leader," Karie began. "Recharge your ICans, but change the firing settings. Lower the pulse frequency by a half… to about 300 or 200 per second. Or even 100 per second. Don't have the entire platoon set their beams to the same pulse frequency. Keep breaking up those formations!"

After receiving acknowledgement from Golf Leader, Karie allowed herself a smirk.

"That aught to keep those bastards guessing! Good eye, cadet."

They were in the thick of things now as the last two waves of the enemy descended. Konya heard another yelp over the communications system, as another two lives were snuffed out.

"Hotel Five," Karie said, her voice slightly strained, "Louis and Marko. Good men. That leaves just three… against at least seventy. Hotel One and Two are damaged, but functional. Golf Two and Five are also damaged, but functional. Golf Three looks to be intact, but heavily damaged."

Konya checked the arrival date for the reinforcements. "Five minutes, twenty seconds. I'm queuing up an airstrike!"

"This is… gonna be tough…!" Karie admitted, as the mecha as it stomped on the ruins of a fallen Shadowbot. A second later, a whole wing of the enemy barreled in, firing at the mobian war machine. Konya could hear the telltale ding-ding of blaster bolts hitting armor as the assault bore more heavily on the mostly undamaged Cyclone. Several of the robots didn't survive the frontal attack and the exchange of fire, but as they regrouped and came around again, coupled with enemy fire from other sides, Konya began to feel the cold grip of terror constricting around his throat.

"Here they come!" Karie growled. "Watch it!"

Konya wasn't going to answer, but then, suddenly, a bright beam shot down from above, mauling the ranks of the enemy. A geyser of ash and debris leapt up into the air, followed by a cacophony of explosive shells. Moments later, a swarm of drone fighters descended from one of the ships overhead.

Karie gasped. "It's…!"

"All units find cover!" the radio blared. "Torpedo salvo inbound! Repeat: torpedo strikes are inbound! Duck and cover!"

The Cyclone shot back and hunched low behind the rise of a crater. They'd cleared enough of the area's defenses to let more of the low flying Destroyers get in range and calculate targeting solutions. Without proper ground cover, at this altitude, the flying bricks were easy targets, especially since only the humans had shields on their ground attack destroyers.

A distant explosion, like a dozen cracks of thunder, shook the ground.

In a minute, the battlefield was quiet.

The bittersweet fruits of the battle were the littered remains of hundreds of destroyed robots, and the weary pride of a job done under extreme duress. In the distance, two of the giant Egg Factories lay in ruins. One was blown apart so thoroughly as to be unrecognizable. Another was half molten: a glowing yellow orange that refused to cool. Blocking the view of the horizon, the vast bulk of the descending Flying City loomed.

"Hotel. Fall back to landing zone Sierra Four for redeployment!"

"Roger that," Karie said, taking a moment to savor the view. "That's two more down. Only twenty two more to go."

Konya smirked at what passed for a joke in this unit.

"Twenty two?" he asked. "Is that it?"

"Yep! We'll be able to bunk up early tonight for once!"

The mech turned and took off straight upwards, transforming back into a jet and blasting off. They're hit up a depot at Sierra Four, resupply, and then dive back into the fray. In tragedy or triumph, this was the End of the War. Who wouldn't do their part?

* * *

Rouge rested against the rubble, trying to catch her breath.

Things weren't looking too great at the moment. She'd made a quick escape as soon as she could, heading for the surface of Helios, but the corridor she had expected to take topside had… well, it isn't collapsed so much as it _imploded_. Along with what appeared to be hundreds of square meters of steel and concrete. There was no way she could dig through it, not in a hundred years. That left finding alternate routes.

Just her luck almost all of them were guarded or locked down.

A directed explosion blew the door out of its supports and sent it rocketing down the hallway beyond. Rouge's super-sensitive ears heard it smash into something, and then a small explosion. Running down past the remains of the door, she quickly delivered a coup de'gras to the barely functional E-series mech that had been guarding the corridor. Kicking its head off was easy enough; avoiding the laser fire slightly less so.

Getting her bearings, Rouge looked around for a way to get up another level. There was little point in running around on the same floor. She needed to get higher. Once she was on one of the higher levels, or at least close to it, she could get a signal out to Miles and the Fleet. Once he had her location, she knew he'd send someone to pick her up.

Hell, after all she'd gone though, he'd better pick her up himself!

Prying loose a door, Rouge confirmed that it led to an elevator shaft. It was one of the best breaks she'd had since sneaking out of the control room. Checking to make sure it wasn't running she tilted her head upward and tried to guess how far up it went and whether it was totaled up at the top. It was one of the maglev transport tubes, definitely off line, and as far as she could tell it was intact up top.

Slipping on a pair of clawed gauntlets, Rouge leapt for the side of the transport shaft, finding an easy handhold on one of the rails. Bracing herself, she started to climb. Based on what little she could get from her echolocation, there was maybe a hundred-something meters until she reached the uppermost level. That had to be just beneath the armored shield layer of the city above.

"Almost there," she told herself, climbing steadily upwards.

At least she didn't have to run through a maze of spinning giant gears and twirling electrical conduits and exposed gas pistons to get where she needed to go. No badniks or bounce springs even. Just a plain old elevator shaft. Of course, thinking that, Rouge couldn't help but wonder if she had jinxed herself. Any moment now there would be a rumble, and it would either collapse in on her or the maglev train would shoot out of the darkness and try and squish her.

Climbing up another floor, she sighed.

There was something to be said for monotony after all she'd been through over the last day or two. With no obvious dangers, and only hundreds upon hundreds of feet of sheer wall to climb, she found her mind wandering a bit. For some reason, she thought about Shadow, and how she had left him. Finding the Emeralds with him had reminded her of a strange side of the black hedgehog that no one else really saw. Getting the last two Emeralds had been hard enough that he had acted almost… well. It was unnerving, whatever it was.

If he had been a normal guy, it might have even been nice to share the adventure. But she couldn't forget how he had killed all those guards, nearly murdered a helpless man, and then beheaded someone. He was scary, and she had hung around a lot of scary guys over her lifetime. Then there were all the not so subtle things he said about this Maria girl, and her dream of burning the world down or something.

What kind of little sick girl wants to destroy the world?

Then again, knowing Shadow, it was more likely that he was simply fobbing that part of the story. It was impossible to tell now what happened back on the ARK, and in the end, whether Maria was an omnicidal maniac or not was irrelevant. Shadow was. Thank the Source Miles' plan had actually worked and the fake Emerald had destroyed the Eclipse Chamber. Something like that didn't belong in either Eggman or Shadow's hands.

Rouge tucked her fingers into a groove in the wall and rested a second. Looking up, she could see that there was still a long way to go. She was tempted to just try and fly up, but there wasn't a lot of room in the shaft, and the attempt would wear her out pretty quickly. Fifty meters straight up was probably doable, though. Rouge decided on it. She'd get about halfway, then try and fly the rest. It would be a tight squeeze for her wings, but it was worth a try.

When she got back on solid land, she'd really have some 'words' with her so called partner. Miles owed her big, and now that she thought about it, a couple gems (nice as they were) and a measly million credits just weren't cutting it. Since they were pretending to be a couple anyway, the least he could do was splurge a little on some stuff for her.

A villa in the mountains would be a nice start, and maybe a high rise apartment in Echidnapolis. At least a full set of psuedo Chaos Emeralds, too. Sure they were technically _fake_, but given the trouble the originals always caused, they'd do in a pinch. She'd make them the centerpiece of an entire room and bathe in their super-shiny ultra-expensive glow for at least a couple minutes every night. Yes. That would go a long way to making up for all this trouble.

Maybe she'd even let him have the pleasure of her company for a little while longer, too. They'd had a good thing for a while back there, even if it had just been for show, and the little trip to Chemical Planet had been interesting. He'd grown up to be a cute enough guy to boot. Sticking close to him for a while would also help to clear her own name and even earn back a bit of the credibility she had lost over the last year or so. Being some kind of hero wasn't really her thing, but cashing in on saving the world had its appeal!

Shaking her head, trying to dispel those thoughts, Rouge began to focus again on the task at hand. But even in it, she thought about him. The money and gems… were nice. Very, very nice! But she knew she wasn't doing this for money or even for treasures, though Miles had hoarded plenty of both. No. Helping her remaining friends in GUN was only part of it, too.

She wanted to help him, too.

Not that Rouge felt affection in that sense for the kitsune; it was a matter of respect and camaraderie. She agreed with and respected what he wanted to do, and even grudgingly admired him for what he could do. Rouge had met both Sonic and Knuckles a few times, and while she did admire their heroism and resolve, they were both so typically dull, always running off to right the world's wrongs with their fists. Miles, though, could change the world with his mind.

There was a potential there that the world had missed out on so much over the last century. So many great minds had come and gone, and so many had been lost. Some, like Gerald, had become obsessed and divorced from reality and practicality. Some, like Nate Morgan, had been lost to prejudice. Others had simply become madmen or potential tyrants, like the current Robotnik, the echidnas Enerjak and Finitevus, or that horrible witch Mya Florentine.

Miles was different. He had that spark of genius, and that ambitious drive, and even a bit of ruthlessness, but also a grounded nature that made him appealing. Here was a mobian – she was sure – who could change the world for the better. More importantly, he was also someone who would be worth wrapping around her little finger…

Either way, it was certain that she could do more for him than any of those other girls he'd had the misfortune of running into: that psycho, Fiona, or that wall flower, Cream. Miles Prower was a potentially invaluable asset and Rouge never had been that happy sharing her toys.

Licking her lips, she could almost taste his blood, like sweet nectar.

That was a bonus, too.

"Ok!" She figured she was about halfway up. More than halfway, even. Pushing off from the wall, Rouge flapped her wings and tried to steady herself. The maglev shaft was too tramped to maneuver much, and the tips of her wings sometimes hit the wall painfully, but he was doable. Carefully ascending, she built up a bit of speed. Up ahead in the darkness, she could just barely see the end.

Grabbing onto the end of the transport shaft and the cushioned breaker there, Rouge kicked the door, forcing it open a crack. Shimmying over and flipping upside down, so she hung by her feet, Rouge reached into the gap in the door and slowly pried it open. Once she got it open a few inches, it hissed open completely and compliantly. Jumping through the doorway, Rouge smiled as she recognized where she was.

"Blue sector!" she said, remembering it from before. There was a hangar to the east. Blue would be guarded, but only by obsolete models like SWATbots. Running down the open hallway, Rouge retrieved a radio communicator out of a pocket strapped to her belt.

The coded frequency Miles had given her was a bit broken, but clear.

"This is Black Sheep to Handler," Rouge tried. With the Eggnet down, the nethack she had been using to communicate was worthless. The radio and the coded signal were the best bet by this point.

"Repeat: this is Black Sheep to Handler. Anyone out there?"

The response was nothing but static.

Slowing her pace, Rouge remembered something: there was an Eggnet terminal to the west somewhere. She had scoped it out before but never actually needed to use it. It was a small detour, but possibly worth the risk. It would help to know what was going on outside. Turning a corner to a T-junction, Rouge ran into her fist bit of resistance since coming to the sector.

Three old Type-30 model SWATbots nearly bumped into her. They were Great War clunkers dating back to Robotnik's original coup. Barely slowing down, Rouge jump kicked the first one and then spun a hundred and eighty degrees, beheading the other two in one easy motion. The old and frankly obsolete robots came apart like chaff. They were notoriously vulnerable to physical impacts. Their armor was supposed to protect them from energy weapons only. Even a regular mobian or human could wreck one in close quarters if they knew what they were doing.

And Rouge _knew_ what she was doing.

Heading down the hall, Rouge saw another group of three, and promptly trashed them as easily as the last bunch. A final group actually saw her coming, and started to open fire, but the trained spy easily slipped through, smashing them one by one. The enemy fall apart before her. Three Combots would have been a challenge at once, and three Type-36 SWATbots would've been a bit tough, but three Type-30s? Not a problem. The obsolete models were probably just garrison troops tasked with maintenance duties.

Rouge checked the digital mini-map she had downloaded earlier.

"Almost there," she said, heading towards the Eggnet terminal.

She turned another corner and was immediately met by the staccato roar of a heavy weapon. Red pulses of plasma cut through the air, forcing Rouge to slide and find cover on the other side of the room's doorway. She didn't have to look to guess that the SWATbots in there were the upgraded models: a Type-36 and two Type-34s, probably. They also knew she was coming.

Reaching into a pocket, she quickly rolled a grenade through the door. This one wasn't an EMP or explosive. It wouldn't do to fry the Eggnet terminal, after all. This was a modified flash grenade, designed specifically to fry optical circuitry and confuse close range radar with hundreds of reflective aluminum strips. The room disappeared in a bright light, and Rouge ducked inside.

Type-34s and 36s were smarter and had better weapons than Type-30s, but they weren't any tougher. Rouge grabbed the closest one, still stunned by the grenade, and threw it into one of its teammates. She then brought down her heel in one of the robot's many softer spots, nearly cracking it in two. Another of the black humanoid robots tried to open fire on her position, but Rouge spun, grabbed it by the arm, and flipped it onto the floor. A quick twist and the arm came right out of its socket. She then finished the helpless robot by crushing its head.

Her iron boot techniques were perfectly tailored to deal with this kind of fighting.

With the room cleared, Rouge walked up to the vacant Eggnet terminal. It still seemed intact and functional, unlike every other one she had run across. Sabotaging Eclipse had fried a lot of core systems. Powering it up, an alcove in the wall opened up, revealing the holographic display and controls. They flickered a bit but still worked. Stepping inside, Rouge reactivated the nethack program.

The holographic display flickered again, and indicated that the program was running and processing her request. After a second, it confirmed her host status, and started searching for free pathways. The nethack was Miles' programming, designed to find holes in the Eggnet and reroute and conceal their private communications using backdoors in both hijacked and loyalist satellites. Since Eggnet secure communications were always point to point encrypted, that meant bouncing the signal around a bit and hiding it as background noise.

CONNECTED

Miles didn't answer.

"Come on, now," Rouge glanced over her shoulder, half expecting a Combot squad to burst in. "The least you can do is pick up the phone when I call, come on!"

Finally, his face appeared on the holographic screen.

"Rouge!" he said, surprised and happy. Something was causing his bangs to whip by around the side of his forehead. Behind him, she could almost see clouds and explosions.

"I knew you'd find a way to contact me," he added. "Where are you?"

"Blue Sector, quadrant Five, southeast," she quickly replied. He nodded, knowing where that was, having memorized much of Helios' interior layout.

"You were heading for Hangar Eleven?" he guessed, smiling. "Good. I have two units making a push towards it. They'll be there in a few minutes. I can be there personally in… maybe five minutes.

"How are things out there? It sounds like Hell. Looks bad, too. And why are the marines taking so long to get here?"

"You didn't notice?" he asked and blinked in shock. "There was some kind of black cloud. It enveloped the entire city. It's causing communications problems and preventing fire support from the Fleet."

"Black cloud?" Rouge cocked her head in confusion. "I… didn't see anything like that, and I've been running around in here for a while now."

"It doesn't matter. Sonic and I will take care of things from here. I'm just glad you made it out in time."

"I'm pretty hardy, you know. It'll take more than an imploding city to do me in!"

"Good to…" he trailed off, staring at her.

"What?" Rouge asked, and then glanced over her shoulder.

Shadow's hand caught her left arm like a vice, and with a swift tug, he ripped her out of the Eggnet terminal's alcove. Rouge yelped in pain and tried to swing her free arm at him, but he twisted and threw her to the ground. Rouge hit the floor face first.

"Damnit!" she heard Tails yell. "It's over, Shadow! Let her go!"

"Over?" Shadow sneered, and yanked her arm out of its socket. It was a cruel parody of the move she had used against a SWATbot in the same room, just a few minutes before. Rouge managed to fight the urge to cry out in pain, but tears and stars filled her vision.

"This isn't over," Shadow declared, kicking his former partner in the stomach and sending Rouge crashing hard into an unyielding steel wall. The bat girl curled up into a fetal ball. It felt like he had kicked her insides into her wings. She couldn't recall ever being hit so hard.

He stood over her; she could literally feel his shadow looming over her.

"You betrayed me, Rouge," his voice was smooth and filled with hate. "You betrayed and sabotaged Maria's dream! Her **dream**, Rouge!"

"Shadow!" Miles yelled again, his image blurry within the terminal. "I did it, not her! You want someone to pay? The whole thing was my idea! I used you to destroy Eclipse. It was me!"

Shadow's red, burning eyes wandered over to the kitsune's image.

"I will make those you cherish suffer as Maria's dream has suffered," the black hedgehog said the words softly, slowly. "Now, watch, helplessly. Reflect on this moment…"

Rouge cringed as he reached for her.

"…and curse yourself."


	37. A Flawed and Imperfect World ii

Sonic could see Tails' expression turn dark as the two raced to intercept Robotnik's flying city. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to eavesdrop on whatever news the kitsune had been given. Instead, the blue hero focused on keeping stable on his Assault GEAR and finding a way to land on the giant speeding landmass that was currently hurtling towards tens of thousands of people. The air was thick with fighting between airships and the remaining Eggman legions, and even the ground below was a battlefield between the enraged enemy and the desperate defenders of Knothole.

"Sonic," Tails finally contacted him, using the radio. It was simply the only means they had to talk at these speeds.

"What's up?"

"We're going in," the fox's voice sounded strained. "This way."

Shooting sharply off to the left, Sonic angled his feet on the GEAR and followed.

* * *

Knothole.

Years ago, it had been a tiny village; a few meager huts clustered around a small lake, hidden only by the dappled shade of the great trees that surrounded it. So it had been since Nate Morgan first visited the site and constructed the prototype Ring Generator in one of the sheltered ponds, and since General D'Coolette had organized the construction of the small hidden base there. It was one of almost a hundred that he had proposed be built, should the Kingdom of Acorn fall during the Great War.

They would be a refuge from which to survive, even as the overlanders torn down Mobius' great cities as they had those in the far west. Of this great plan, only a handful of actual Knotholes were constructed before the military coup that deposed the Acorn Dynasty fell like an executioner's axe. It was to the second smallest of the Knotholes that a small band of children not yet in their teens, fleeing the mass roboticization of 3230, finally found a haven. Let by a few weary adults, by 3233 they would become known as the original Freedom Fighters.

Though there were many Knotholes, in many parts of Mobius, only one would officially go by that name. It was The Knothole. It was the legendary hiding place of the Freedom Fighters. In time, after the first fall of Robotropolis and the brief reign of Prince Elias, it became the refuge it was first designed to be, and its population swelled to over two thousand. The very profile of the city changed, as huts gave way to necessary multi-story apartments and houses, leaving only the most senior Freedom Fighters their original dwellings. Dirt was replaced by cobbled stone and concrete block, and for the first time in its history, buildings grew to match the height of the Great Forest's massive oaks and redwoods.

Knothole became a city.

A city still hidden, obscured by a city shield and cloak. No longer could it passively rely on the forest cover and hope to go unseen. It required power, and it required technology… The shield designed and built by a young Miles Prower allowed the city to survive, even thrive, and still go unnoticed. The city grew higher than wider, the better to squeeze into the invisible elevated buddle dome that cloaked it.

Then, one day, that bubble popped.

"Wa - would ya look at that?"

Amy Rose looked at the source of the voice – it was a middle aged mobian, a hedgehog like herself – pointing up at the sky. She was just one in a crowd of civilians that were being herded away from the southern portion of the city. All around her, other mobians gasped and looked upwards as a great dark shade seemed to obscure the normally blue sky. Adjusting her backpack and looking upwards, like all the others, she saw the dark sky start to bubble and distort to the sound of distant thunder.

"By the Source…" "What's happening?" "Some kind of weapon…"

"Keep moving!" A dingo barked the order, and started pushing with the stock of his rifle. "Keep moving!"

"Everything's fine, folks. Don't panic. Just keep moving!" The command came from a new type 'Freedom Fighter,' a mobian feline in the King's formal armed forces (what was left of them anyway) as he started to hurry others along their pre-determined route. High above, the sky began to contort, as if pained. Amy barely heard the footsteps of mobians – several squads of them in combat fatigues of gray and dirty white – running past the crowd at a quick march, heading in the direction she was fleeing from. Their boots made soft thud-thud noises as they moved in near perfect unison.

"Look!" Another mobian civilian pointed upwards. "It's…. It's…"

And then, the sky fizzled away.

What was left was a darker, more sinister blue… Amy quickly realized that this was the real sky, not the illusion created by the inside of the struggling City Cloak. And between the clouds and the earth, small black dots moved at high speed. Still, for a few amazing seconds, it seemed alright… It was then that the first bomb slipped clean through the supposed barrier and leveled a multi-story apartment. Mortar and fire rained down amid a growing cloud of smoke and ash.

"By the Source!" Yet another mobian swore, and held his hand to his head in silent prayer. "Source watch over us…"

"Everybody!" The officer from before yelled at the top of his lungs. "Everything is fine! You will be safe once you get to a designated shelter or transport!"

The crowd began to mill around nervously. Amy felt someone bump against her, and saw it was a young girl, a rabbit only seven or eight years old. She looked up at the pink hedgehog, before breaking eye contact and heading off on her way. For a second, Amy thought to ask where her mother was and if the little girl was lost, but then she remembered… maybe she was already taking part in the fighting to the south.

This was how their childhood had been: they were the refugees of Mobotropolis, Mercia, and dozens of other major cities and countries, but it wasn't how the next generation needed to live, too. For the first time since she had been 'escorted' out of her house and told to leave her things behind, Amy saw the group she was with. The group was almost entirely composed of children. Another mobian guerilla, this one a dark-brown female hedgehog, walked past Amy with a disapproving look.

"How old'r you?" She asked, looking up and down the younger mobian. Amy squirmed under the gaze she was receiving. The other hedgehog's nametag read 'Sergeant C. Danes.'

"Fif… fifteen…" Amy managed, knowing what the other female was going to ask next. Virtually all mobians hit puberty by eleven, came of age around thirteen, were considered fully grown by sixteen, and middle aged by thirty. Their small, fast metabolisms gave them a slightly different view of time and aging than overlanders, who took much longer to mature.

"Fifteen?" The female half-asked, half-said. "What are you doing with these kids? Why aren't you armed? I don't see anything wrong with you."

"I – I…" Amy gulped, and licked her lips. "I'm not a… I mean… I have a Notice of…"

"A Notice of Non-Conscription? Evacuation Priority Alpha?" The female sergeant held out her hand, and Amy reached into her backpack, picking out a small piece of paper. The other mobian snatched it out of Amy's hand, and quickly looked it over, noting the Seal of the Acorns with an undisguised 'hrummf.' Handing it back, she frowned, as if to ask 'who'd you have to sleep with to get that, huh?'

"It seems genuine," she said, walking past the pink hedgehog. "Go on. Get out of here."

"Wait!" Amy found her courage, and grabbed the older female by her shoulder. "Please… have you seen Sonic?"

Somewhere nearby, a soldier raised his voice, "Keep moving! Everyone keep moving!"

"Sonic?" The female Sergeant gave Amy another caustic look. "Sonic the Hedgehog?"

"Yes!" Amy nodded her head vigorously. "He's blue and…"

"I know what he looks like." Sergeant Danes snapped her shoulder out of Amy's fingers. "I heard he was in the city a while ago."

Amy's face brightened. "He was?"

"Yeah. That was maybe a half hour ago? No idea where he is now."

In the distance: "This way!" "You there! Stay with the group! Hey, Sergeant!"

"Now get to your transport, kid." Danes slowly walked away, not sparing Amy another glance. "Or don't."

Amy nodded, trying to keep pace with the crowd.

All around her, the world spun, an endless cacophony of sound and fury. Screaming and yelling and orders and guns… this couldn't be Knothole! Where was Sonic? Where was… Tails…? Or any of their friends? Why was she alone? As dizziness threatened to throw her to the ground, she fell hard against a cold stonewall, grateful for its steadfast nature. Clinging to it, she wandered, trying to escape… to get away…

She found a small plaza, with a small cherry tree and a wood bench.

Literally falling into it, she tried to catch her breath and collect herself. Closing her eyes, she could imagine Sonic or Sally or Bunnie or Tails… or even Mina or Rouge or Knuckles… just walking by, talking and laughing and living… Why was she alone? The last few weeks had been so hard, and she had been so alone…

_"Tails… Can't we just be friends? Friends can love each other, too…"_

That… those words… that was when it all began. She still remembered seeing the anger and rejection in his eyes, unlike anything she had ever seen before. Tails had been changing, physically, for over a year… but he had always been the same nice young boy. He always smiled. He always helped. He did everything people wanted to, and he did it without complaint. He was happy… or so she had thought. But in that moment, all the built up frustration, all the repressed rage…

Exploded out of him.

He caught her hammer, and used it to knock her to the ground. He'd stormed out before anything else happened, but they'd only talked once in the months after that. He was always working, or busy, or away. Did he hate her now? Amy hoped not. She liked him, even after all that had happened, but she _loved_ Sonic. Why didn't anyone understand that?

Love wasn't something you could explain; it wasn't something you could rationalize.

_"He'll never love you… You'll never love me… at least Sonic ends up happy. He is the hero. He deserves a happy ending..."_

Amy wiped away a tear, and looked up at the war torn sky.

"Why? Why did things have to happen like this?" She asked, but got no reply from the uncaring world. "If only Sonic were…"

As if to answer her prayer, she saw a familiar outline on a high rooftop. Sitting up, she leaned towards the shadowed figure, and managed to see downward pointing spines, a confident stance… It was a hedgehog, of that there was no doubt, and when he easily jumped from one rooftop to another, Amy's eyes widened in recognition. Standing up, spirits restored by a surge in resolve, she broke into a run.

"Sonic… Sonic…!" She yelled, but knew he'd never hear her. He never did. But when she caught up to him, he'd set everything right. That was how things worked. That was what heroes did.

Above her, the sky thundered.

"There!" Amy rounded a street corner and saw him, waiting for her. She was on the verge of throwing herself into his waiting arms when she noticed something.

"Wait! I know you!" she skidded to a stop. "You're not…!"

* * *

Wave the Swallow was as terrified as she had ever been.

Under normal circumstances, she would have been ecstatic to be broken out of prison and given a chance to pick up where she left off in her research. While it was true that she had been given a pretty good deal after her capture - she had the chance to study the Ark of the Cosmos and other Babylonian artifacts, and she'd escaped an appointment with a hangman – she was still technically a prisoner. That would never sit right with her or her fellow Rogues.

When "White" and "Violet" had appeared in her room and set her free, Wave had been shocked but grateful. She knew the two of them from the series of jobs they all pulled off on behalf of "M" and quickly assumed that they were getting the gang back together. Except that White and Violet had no intention of freeing Jet or Storm.

Instead, they had her retrieve the Ark of the Cosmos from the lab and then left to meet up with their mysterious benefactor, "M." M, it turns out, wasn't even Mobian. He was some kind of nightmarish crystalline entity inhabiting a Mobian shell. Wave had never seen or heard of anything like it. Just hearing the thing talk filled her with dread. It was like stone grinding together between the words.

At his request, she had finished assembling and aligning the five pieces of the Ark of the Cosmos. It was built like a puzzle box, and for some reason neither Mephiles nor the other two wanted to touch it before it was assembled. Wave had heard White and Violet muttering something about "Iblis" before in hushed tones. After a while, Wave guessed that they meant the "Flame of Disaster" she had heard a few times before. It was just a stupid superstition. The so called "flames" were just a way primitive people described a font of untapped Chaos Energy.

None of that had been too terrible, looking back on it.

The problem came when "White" used his Chaos Control to take her here. Wave had only a vague idea where she was, but she recognized Eggman Tech when she saw it, and it was bloody well everywhere. It was also nearly unsalvageable. They'd told her to "plug the Ark" into the giant Chaos Siphons built into the room. That hadn't been hard. It was easy to jump start the system, since it had only just recently rebooted into a low power "safe mode" of sorts. It was amazing stuff, really, and Wave could have spent years studying it all!

Except soon after she inserted the Ark into the chamber, "M" began working some kind of crazy chaos magic. Black crystal and twisting, living shadows began to cover the walls. The burned and scarred spherical chamber began to echo with distant sounds: screams, moans, whispers. Source alive, it was eerie. It had gotten to the point where Wave could barely manage to stay in the area.

Then it got worse.

A whole cadre of Tails Dolls appeared, along with a black hedgehog who could only be the infamous "Shadow." Wave had heard about him, and if even half of it was truth, then she was in _way_ over her head. Shadow directed the Dolls to serve "M" who called himself "Mephiles." The crystalline entity then jabbed pieces of himself (itself?) into the misshapen floating Dolls. Almost instantly, the already horrifying patchwork creatures became even more twisted and nightmarish.

They lingered nearby, watching in the dark.

This "Mephiles" meanwhile, continued doing whatever kind of bizarre ritual he had started before, warping and changing the hollow spherical chamber. Wave couldn't even see most of the clean easy lines of Eggman tech anywhere anymore. It had all become merged with eldritch energies, sparkling crystal and twisted shadow. Wave's only consolation was that "Violet" looked about as uneasy with things as the Babylon Rogue was. The feline girl was pacing nervously and worrying her hands together.

There was a flash of light and her partner appeared.

"White" was a hedgehog, maybe an albino even, with like-colored gloves and shoes. He and Violet seemed to have known each other long before they partnered up with the Babylon Rogues. Wave had known them for a while but never really learned much about them. The two always kept to themselves. Violet had been good at keeping some of the other mercs they hired in line, especially Fiona and Nack, but they were still basically a mystery.

White appeared now with someone in his arms: a pink hedgehog girl wearing a red dress. Like Violet, he looked anxious and uncomfortable. His feline partner walked over to him, and checked on the girl in his arms. Mephiles also drifted over, clamping his hands together in approval.

"Yes," he rumbled. "This will serve."

Silver looked down at the unconscious girl. "Are you sure we had to…"

"Are you aware of the story of Tikal? The girl who saved her people from Perfect Chaos?" Mephiles' voice was powerful… and convincing. "An innocent soul is required to calm Iblis as well. Only then will it be safe for me to… destroy her…"

"Iblis is a **her**?" Blaze asked, eyes wide. "Sure didn't look like one to me."

Mephiles' expressionless face was the perfect mask.

"A pure and loving soul," he repeated. "The girl will not be harmed. She is merely there to sedate Iblis while I do what must be done."

"If you say so," Silver relented, handing the girl over. Mephiles held Amy Rose carefully, staring down at her face as she slept. The white hedgehog had managed to knock her out without hurting her. Without another word, the crystalline entity floated back towards the Eclipse Chamber.

"What are you guys talking about?" Wave finally found the courage to ask. She had been all but ignored for some time now, but told not to leave. "What are you doing here? Hey, you can't just stick someone in that chamber!"

"Mephiles knows what he's doing," Silver replied, though his voice betrayed a hint of doubt.

"You don't know what's at stake," Blaze echoed his concerns. "This is our one chance to save the future. To stop Iblis before it can break free."

"You mean the Ark?" Wave asked, incredulous. "Look, it's just another form of Chaos Emerald. A glorified battery! It isn't alive!"

Blaze shook her head. "That's where you're wrong! In our… where we came from, Iblis managed to escape this 'Ark of the Cosmos' of yours. Silver and I have been fighting it for years... but it was impossible to win. Iblis was too strong. It… it destroyed everything. There was almost no one left! We came here…"

"Back here," Silver clarified, not bothering to hide it any longer.

"We came back here, into the past, to stop Iblis before it can get free. To kill it in its cage!" Blaze's hands curled into fists. "To save our future!"

Wave sighed, falling back against the wall and sliding down to the floor.

"Gods, I'm surrounded by crazy people…"

"I have our third," another voice took that moment to cut in.

The three mobians, two from the future one from the present, turned to see Shadow emerge from out of the creeping darkness around them. The black hedgehog held a captive Rouge by the collar of her ripped cat suit. She appeared to be barely conscious. With a swift throw, he tossed her across the room to land near the edge of the chamber.

Mephiles turned from having just secured Amy in place near the Ark of the Cosmos, deep in the center of the hollow spherical reactor. The ancient entity floated away from her, but Amy remained frozen in midair. Crystalline shackles bound her to the Ark of the Cosmos and the pulsing lights of chaos energy that bubbles around it.

"Use her," Shadow demanded, and two red eyes fell on a nearby Tails Doll. "But first, I have some questions for her. You! Interrogate her, but do not let her die."

"Who is that?" Blaze asked. "What's going on?"

Next to her, Silver glanced over at Rouge with confusion and sympathy.

"Sonic and his cursed sidekick are on their way," Shadow hissed. "They will have the seventh Emerald."

Mephiles hovered in place, neither alarmed nor impressed.

"Silver. Blaze." The entity commanded, "Stop them and bring me that Emerald. As for the Trigger himself, bring him here alive if it is possible. He may know the location of the Burning Key. With that, destroying Iblis would be… such child's play."

"R-right, I guess," Silver replied, hesitating only a half second. Blaze followed him out moments later, heading down a corridor of carved crystal that led back into the Helios superstructure.

"Shadow. Remain here, guard this place," Mephiles then said, when the other two were gone. He pointed at a still shell shocked Wave. "You will also serve."

"Me?" Wave asked, pointing at herself. "Hey! Wait just a second! I think I've done enough to - "

"You have served in life. You will also serve… in death…"

Wave stood, but a second later, thick silver cords wrapped around her waist and arms, immobilizing her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see one of the Tails Dolls, still lurking in the room's unnatural shadows. It drifted into the light, and Wave could see that the metallic tentacles had emerged from out of the abomination's shoulders. Its pale black button-eyes glinted in the erratic lighting.

Mephiles, for the first time Wave could remember, laughed.

From lower in the heart of the chamber, three large gems rose up. Slowly at first, they began to circle the Ark and Amy in the center of the sphere. Wave struggled to get free, but the Doll's tentacles held her tight as it drifted towards the chamber itself. Six glowing lights began to form in the corners of the hollow sphere, orbiting around the center.

"What are you doing?" Wave screamed as Mephiles hovered closer to her, crystalline growths emerging from between his fingers. "I did everything you wanted! Don't! Don't touch me!"

"Rejoice and be glad… for you have been chosen." The crystalline entity reached for her. "Your soul, with the others, will serve to bind Iblis to me. You will live on within Solaris!"

Wave screamed at Mephiles' touch.

Shadow watched it all, no trace of mercy in his crimson eyes.

* * *

"I don't like this," Silver stated the obvious.

"Like I do?" Blaze ran alongside her old friend. They'd gone through so much together, suffered so many losses, so many set-backs, so many defeats…

"I just… did you see that woman?" Silver asked. It was rhetorical, of course. Blaze had seen her, and seen what Shadow had done to her. They had stood by, knowing she was being thrown to those creepy Doll things. This wasn't how Mephiles had described saving the future by protecting the past.

It felt wrong.

"What do you want to do then?" Blaze snapped, just as troubled as he was but less willing to let it affect her. "You want to just go back there, say, 'never mind, we've changed our minds' and… then what?"

Silver grimaced and shook his head.

"That isn't it…"

"Mephiles is the only one who can get us home, what little of it is left," Blaze's voice was bitter and angry. "We vowed to do anything to stop Iblis!"

Silver furrowed his brows together.

"I know," he conceded. "But… do you really think that girl will be ok?"

"Which one?"

"The one I brought in…"

Blaze gritted her teeth in frustration.

"I _want_ to think she will be, but," the feline fire user responded. "But I don't think so. But if it takes one life to save the future, then so be it! That's just how things are sometimes!"

Silver gave her a swift, sad stare. "Blaze…"

Before Blaze could say any more the ceiling above their heads collapsed; only Silver's hasty telekinesis kept them from being buried by falling rubble. Rebar and concrete fell, blocking the way ahead. Another massive explosion overhead shook the walls, causing flakes of broken and shattered concrete to rain down. Nodding to one another, Silver and Blaze jumped up, through the burning hole that had been cut into the level above them, and into one of the city's manufacturing bays.

They arrived in time to see a massive eighty ton Caterkiller badnik shear apart and explode. Ten meter long legs, more centipede than caterpillar-like, pinwheeeled through the air crushing the remains of other robots as they landed. A titanic fabrication machine exploded in concert, devastating and collapsing a nearby wall within the giant chamber. The smoking remains of dozens of badniks and combots, some of the former built and armored to function as walking or crawling tanks and mecha, lay strewn around the bay like broken and crushed toys. A blue and tawny orange blur whipped around one another before landing on top of the smashed behemoth badnik.

Silver and Blaze exchanged looks.

"This is them," the latter said, holding her arms out and igniting her hands, wreathing them in fire. "Hit them hard and fast! You take the Trigger! I'll take the other one!"

"Will do!" Silver shot upwards and reached out with his mind. There was enough rubble and broken machinery here to toss around all day. Seizing a beaten caterkiller's gigantic head section, Silver hurled the ten ton projectile at the two targets. The Trigger, he saw, actually jumped onto the spinning piece of metal before heading right for him.

Silver pushed his hands forward.

A storm of debris swirled up from below in two great waves before crashing together. The Trigger, however, managed to shoot off to the side and out of the way. Silver cursed. The blue hedgehog was fast. Really fast. That alone wouldn't pose a massive problem, but he also had some way of changing direction in midair.

Landing on a metal board that he kept suspended in the air, Silver pulled his arms back, parting the waves of debris to try and zero in on Sonic's location. He just barely caught the moment before a spinning blue ball crashed into the remains of a badnik to Silver's left side. The steel and aluminum construct tore apart as Sonic's bladed spines shredded it like wet tissue paper.

'I can't get hit by that!' Silver thought, reaching out to try and telekinetically grab his opponent. All it needed was a moment to mentally 'latch on' but Sonic instantly zipped off in another direction, and it was all Silver could do to keep pace with his eyes.

Pumping his fists, the pale time traveler threw more and more of the room's larger debris at the speeding, zipping, darting Iblis Trigger. When that failed, he ripped out some of the exposed power cables lying nearby. The blue bands in his gloves glowed hotly as he burned through his own reserves of Chaos Energy, holding nothing back.

This was the Iblis Trigger – the source of Iblis' resurrection!

"You'll pay for what you did to my future!" Silver snarled, telekinetically ripping up some of the smaller fragments and metal detritus around the manufacturing bay. "You do pretty well with big targets! So let's see you handle this!"

A thousand bullet-like shards shot through the air, punching holes in walls and ceilings and blasted machinery as Silver tried to pin down his elusive opponent. Sonic was fast, but he wasn't responding as well to the bullet-spam as he was the giant waves of debris. Silver could feel that he was getting a sense of how Sonic's unusual dodging mechanic worked.

He wasn't so much changing direction, as he was homing in on a target. When Sonic dodged like that, he always hit something and then bounced off. At first, Silver had suspected that the blue hedgehog was somehow jumping from point to point, but that wasn't it. Sonic had to keep physically hitting objects, either in midair or on the ground, and Silver suspected he was only able to "home in" on a new target when he hadn't totally destroyed the one he just hit. In other words: he had to "bounce off" before he could "home in."

"More!" Silver gritted his teeth, focusing all his energy into ripping up more small bits of debris. "I need more!"

Bits of steel.

An overturned bucket of ingots

Glass shards.

A severed robotic hand.

A sharp piece of rebar.

Multiplied a thousand fold. A veritable hailstorm. It would be impossible to avoid, and impossible to completely block. There would be nothing to bounce off of! The Trigger would be pinned down and cut to pieces!

Silver roared and the entire facility shook.

* * *

Cloaked in flame, Blaze shot towards her opponent before stopping and spinning, projecting a slicing wave of fire down onto his head. Tails side stepped the attack, flicking another one of his explosive rings into her face. The agile feline twisted and spun away from the resulting explosion, the protective flames around her shooting out to absorb the force and fire of the attack.

The kitsune spun his tails, moving parallel to her own course, a golden nexus of energy forming between his fingers. Blaze raced up the side of a wall and Tails followed, the two unleashing their attacks at the same time. An orange column of flame met a golden lance of light, and the two bent and twisted and entwined. Blaze barely had time to shield her eyes before the ring spear hit her burning aura. It didn't pierce, thankfully, but it did send her flying.

"Damn!" She swore, fire blasting out of her hands and feet to reorient herself before she could hit the ground. A scorched streak of fire shot up in her wake as she slowed, avoiding a painful crash into a pile of broken badniks.

Her opponent was gone.

A flash of movement caught Blaze's eye, and she unleashed a torrent of fire. The spinning two tailed ball disappeared within the fire, and Blaze poured on the juice even as it landed. Metal and plastic nearby melted and dribbled and vaporized. Blaze lowered her hand, searching the now raging fire for any sign of life.

A yellow blast of light rammed into her from behind, sending her rolling and skidding along the factory floor. Once again, her fire aura had protected her from being impaled by the blow, but the physical force of it was tremendous. Worse, the beam was dwelling on her and forcing her along the floor, like a broom pushing a ball of dust. Desperately grabbing hold of a piece of conveyer belt, Blaze flipped up and behind cover. Ducking and running, a series of explosions went off overhead as her opponent tried to flush her out.

'How did I miss before?' Blaze jumped and ignited her aura beneath her feet, the blast of flame propelling her like a rocket. 'I know I hit him! How did he get behind me?'

Blaze flew further back, keeping a safe distance between them. A handful of strange blocks formed in the air and fell to the ground. Blaze had no idea what they did, but her high speed evasive movement and extreme range kept her safe. Holding out her palms, she concentrated, and a dozen tiny pinpricks of orange light formed around her fingers.

"Come on," she whispered. "Close the distance a bit…!"

Sure enough, her opponent took to the air with his twin tails, and shot towards her like a bottle rocket. Blaze smirked, and stopped holding back the balls of fire. Two dozen of them suddenly grew in size and shot out in every direction. Blaze narrowed her eyes at the incoming kitsune, and the balls of fire swept in from every angle – impossible to avoid.

Tails disappeared in the inferno.

"Gotcha!" Blaze cheered, only to gape as a red orb sped through the fire. In less than a second, it hit her. Blacking out for a moment, Blaze saw someone in front of her, tumbling through the air side by side. Her hands pulsed with power, and twin trails of fire engulfed the other body. The two spun wildly in the air as Blaze tried to keep her feet together and maneuver.

Then she hit the ground and arched.

She barely saw him, still in front of her. Before she could hit the ground again, her opponent seized her by her hair and spun, tossing her into a wall. Blaze hit it with her shoulder but had the presence of mind to tuck in her legs and unload another blast of flame into the indistinct red orb that had been manhandling her.

"That won't work," a voice stated, and a gray gloved hand seized her by the left ankle before slamming her into the ground. Blaze quickly lifted a hand to try and fire again, but that same hand grabbed her by the wrist and twisted. The movement ran up her entire arm and Blaze hissed in pain at the stresses suddenly focused on her elbow.

The fire princess pushed past it, past the pain, past the possibility of her enemy breaking her arm at the joint. Blue fire sparked in her captured palm before blasting out like the mouth of a furnace. Her arm twisted again, forcing her face into the ground. A boot pinned her other arm to the side.

"Oh? That last one was hotter than before," the voice observed. "Looks like you can go up to almost one thousand six hundred degrees Kelvin. Impressive."

Something wrapped around her wrists then, pulling them together behind her back. Blaze snorted fire, blasting away dust and bits of debris from where she lay on the floor. The thing around her wrists, it felt like a steel trap, lifted her off the floor. Turning her head, she could see her opponent standing, his hands behind his back. She realized that the thing holding her wrists behind her back, and the thing that had lifted her into her knees, was one of his _tails_.

The other hovered in front of her, the white tip aimed at her heart.

"I wouldn't try taking off, unless you want to lose your hands," Tails suggested, humorless.

"Damnit! How?" Blaze struggled a bit, but stopped when she felt something cut slightly into her wrists. She could see what he meant: if she tried to take off again, it would tear her hands off at the wrists.

"It was simple enough to adjust a flame shield to counter your abilities," the fox explained, "Now. Where is she? Where is Rouge?"

"Rouge?" Blaze hissed, not knowing what he was talking about.

"She's a bat," he added. "Shadow has her. Now, I don't know why you're working with him and right now I don't care. _Where is she?_"

"I'm not beaten yet!" Blaze opened her mouth wide, sticking out a small pink tongue. A blue flame instantly formed above it, just in front of her mouth and under her nose. A blast of hot air shot away from the burning blue point, ruffling her hair and his. A bright white light formed within the blue, building up power.

Miles said nothing; he merely held up his right hand.

It was wrapped in golden fire of its own.

"Woah, there!"

A red blur suddenly interposed itself between them, pushing the two apart. Blaze fell back, her hands suddenly free. Igniting her feet, she shot back across the floor a couple meters only to unexpectedly bump into a wall.

A wall that shouldn't have been there.

Blaze blinked: she wasn't even in the manufacturing bay. The walls and architecture looked similar, but…

"Chaos Control?" she asked aloud, and swallowed the burning energy ball she had been forming. Fire still licking up her arms and between her hands, Blaze quickly found the room's door and headed for it. The kitsune must've teleported her here.

"Hey, wait up," the voice from before cut Blaze short. She turned, spun, and instinctively unleashed a tornado of fire at the source of the voice. The red blur from before ducked under the fire and ran up against one of the metal walls.

It was a… echidna?

"Calm down a second!" The girl, who couldn't have been much older than Blaze herself, held up her hands in a placating manner.

"Who are you?" Blaze demanded, powering up her hands. "Where did you take me?"

"A couple hundred feet above where you were fighting," the girl explained. "As for who I am, well, I'm someone you'll want to listen to."

Blaze didn't lower her guard.

"Let me start by showing you this," the echidna girl used e finger to pull down her shirt slightly. Blaze, mystified by the sudden exhibition, quickly saw what the girl meant: there was something in her chest, just above her breasts. The bright ruby red stood out, even against the girl's brick red coloring.

"You know what this is, right?" the girl asked. "It's a Sol Emerald."

Blaze just stood there, stunned.

"How do… how do you…?"

"You have one, too, don't you?" Lara asked. "I know one of you guys has to have it. It's what made it so hard to catch up with you. I ended up trailing the two freaks downstairs."

"I do have a…I mean..." Blaze unconsciously fingered the necklace she wore, where her own Sol Emerald was hidden. "I do have one, yes. I never met anyone else who used Sol Emeralds, besides Silver..."

"Ok," Lara checked to be sure. "You have it, right? Not him?"

"Y-yeah, but," Blaze finally composed herself. "But what's this all about? And who are you, really?"

"I'm Lara-Su," the echidna introduced herself with a broad smile. "And you don't know it, but you're a lot like me! Stay right here. I'm going to get hold of your boyfriend downstairs and we can start sorting this out!"

Lara winked out, Chaos Controlling without further warning.

Blaze huffed; Silver _wasn't_ her boyfriend.

* * *

Tails narrowed his eyes at where his opponent should have been,

"Chaos Control?" he wondered, scanning the battle torn factory floor. There was no sign of the troublesome fire flinger or that red blur that had saved her. Under other circumstances, he would probably have conducted a more thorough search, but time was of the essence. Jumping up onto a perch to check on Sonic's fight, Tails saw the blue wonder zipping in loops around the room, up the walls, and even across the ceiling.

A literal firestorm of swirling matter was on his tail. The sheer mass of it was impressive: there had to be at least a hundred tons of random crap being thrown around, and at pretty impressive speeds, too. The source of it all was obviously the static white hedgehog standing on the floating platform. It was actually a good distance to attack Sonic from.

'Not bad. He's figured out Sonic's moves, and the inherent weakness of the homing attack.' Tails watched as Sonic blasted through a swarm of tiny solid missiles. 'He's also found a distance just out of reach of an unassisted jump. By keeping any large pieces of debris away from himself this guy is staying out of range of any of Sonic's normal moves. He can think tactically, but...'

"Sonic!" Tails yelled over the din. "Quite jerking yourself off already! We're on the clock!"

"Right! Right!" Sonic yelled back, obviously enjoying himself immensely.

Silver sneered at being taken lightly.

"You're delusional! I've already won! You can't beat what you can't reach!"

As if to prove his point, he fired another barrage of tiny missiles at the speeding blue hedgehog. Sonic dodged and weaved, running up the wall, puffs of smoke just behind him. A curling trail of broken robot parts nearly cut him off, but there was nothing within it large enough to bounce off of.

"I'll finish this right now!" Silver yelled, and rose up his hands, straining to increase the volume of matter swirling around the room. Four great columns of deadly debris rose up at his command. Blue smoke wafted out from Silver's gloves as he pushed his absolute limit. The columns rose and came together as Sonic reached the top of the wall and started running along the ceiling of the manufacturing bay.

Silver clapped his hands together, and the waves of debris came together like a four fingered fist. Silver's face lit up in triumph, only for Sonic to tear through the cloud of debris a moment later. Too late, the telekinetic realized how Sonic could reach him, despite the range handicap.

"From above?" Silver gasped, jumping off the platform he had been standing on.

Sonic was dropping down from above!

That was how he could get in range! Silver saw Sonic demolish the metal platform, change direction, and then head towards him, in full super spin. Holding out his hands, the pale time traveler focused on the incoming spin attack, trying to deflect or slow it down. Yelling in determination, redoubled his efforts. He could feel it starting to work, but Sonic was too fast, and there wasn't enough time, and he was falling and couldn't stop, and - !

Sonic slammed into the ground amid a cloud of dust and debris.

* * *

Silver hit the ground, still yelling.

A second later, he stopped yelling when he noticed nothing was happening. Sonic was gone. The entire room was gone. Lowering his hands and looking around, he saw Blaze watching him with amusement.

"Holy shit that was close!" Silver fell back against the floor, limp and relieved.

"Didn't go well?" Blaze asked, still sounding smug.

Silver raised an eyebrow at her as if to ask, 'and you did better?'

"That **was** a close one," another girl said, an echidna, walking up from behind Blaze. Silver immediately jumped up onto his feet and started summoning up his power.

"Easy," Blaze said, motioning for him to stop. "Lara here isn't an enemy. She has a Sol Emerald."

"Spoilsport," Lara complained. "I like the look of surprise I get by revealing that secret my way."

"Oh, he'd like that, I'm sure," Blaze noted dryly.

"What now?" Silver asked, completely lost.

"Never mind that!" Blaze quickly decided. She turned and backed off a few feet. "Now that we're both here, what did you want to tell us?"

"Ok," Lara said, pausing a second to collect her thoughts. "Hopefully, with you two gone, Sonic and Miles will head down to the Eclipse Chamber. I assume either of you know how to Chaos Control back in there?"

"Um, I do," Silver said, raising his hand.

"This isn't a school room," Blaze observed. "You don't have to raise your hand."

"Oh, right! Sorry."

"That gives us a little while," Lara continued. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're both from the future, right? And you went back in time to change the past?"

"Something like that," Silver admitted.

"Almost exactly like that," Blaze said.

"Believe me, I can totally sympathize with that, but you're here to stop some big menace called Iblis that got sealed up like thousands of years ago, right?"

Blaze and Silver both nodded.

"And you did this with the help of a creepy crystal guy named Mephiles, right?"

Again, they nodded.

"Yeah," Lara said, crossing her arms. "Big surprise here: he's the bad guy. You know: the type who uses the two naive heroes to do his dirty work? The type that betrays them at the last second while going _'Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Just As Planned'_ – that type of bad guy."

Silver held up a finger, indicating he wanted to talk.

"Um, but… Mephiles helped us before. A bunch of times! And…"

"And none of the plans actually helped beat Iblis," Blaze calmly noted. "He did save our lives a few times, but then he said we should give up and go back into the past. And some of the things he's had us do…"

Silver had the presence of mind to look ashamed.

"Dubious morality?" Lara asked. "Hell, I've done some pretty bad things myself for… different reasons, so I won't criticize on account of that. But the way I hear it, Mephiles wants to set Iblis free and merge with it, not destroy it."

"You heard that from who?" Blaze asked. "No one in this time should even know who or what Iblis is!"

"I had a little talk with the guy who sealed Iblis into that Ark thing," Lara admitted, much to the surprise of her two guests. "And yes, before you ask, he is old as dirt and not exactly a saint himself. He was also the jackass who basically **created** Iblis and her prison."

Silver frowned at that revelation.

"And where is this _man_?" he asked, obviously intending to make a less than friendly acquaintance.

"He's sitting back while everyone else does his dirty work," Lara replied with an unhappy sigh. "He's _that_ kind of bad guy, too. But he sealed Iblis before and wants it done again."

"This… _man_… isn't the source of our Sol Emeralds, is he?" Blaze sounded like she was afraid of the answer.

"Thankfully, no."

The two girls sighed in relief.

"We have to go back," Silver spoke up. "We have to confront Mephiles. I'd like to hear him out, but... but if he's been tricking us… then we'll have to stop him!"

"We do," Lara agreed. "But we also have to be careful. That's why I got you two out of there and away from the super smash brothers downstairs. This has to stay between just us time travelers. No one else."

* * *

Rouge blinked her eyes and groaned painfully.

"Subject is cognizant," a monotone voice announced. "Drug feed complete."

Rouge groaned, forcing her eyes to focus on where she was.

The Tails Dolls floated, unassisted by rockets, jets, or any other apparatus. They were crude imitations of Miles; with malformed stubby, useless arms, a sagging body and limp legs. A red pin in their foreheads glowed with a demonic inner light. Sharp crystalline growths stuck out from under some of the crude folds and stitches of their bodies, warping what was left of their faces and bodies.

They were all around her.

She was suspended in the air and against the wall by two silver tendrils that snaked around her arms and then down her body and around her thighs. Thankfully her chest was unbound, or Rouge doubted she'd even be able to breathe. The source of the segmented robotic tendrils was slightly below her. One of the Dolls had its back to her, and out of small slits in what would have been its shoulder blades she could see where the tentacles seemed to be housed.

It turned slowly in her direction, dull black doll-eyes looking her over.

Rouge winced at the sight, and bit back a scream.

"Subject: Rouge the Bat," all five of them said in one voice, from all around her. "Identification 591-TYN-6501. Verifying pain threshold."

Rouge struggled against the cords holding her in the air.

"W-what?"

And then, all of creation became a scream.

She writhed in the grip of the metal tentacles, unable to even hold her hands up to her ears to try and blot out the horrific sound. Her nails drew blood as her fists clenched tight. But the scream only got louder – blanketing out all existence in the pain it caused. Rouge's mouth opened in a tortured gasp, but no sound came out. She started to see spots behind her eyelids, and then what felt like a hammer began to pound her skull into sheet metal. Nothing seemed to exist, except the pain, and the scream…

'Stop,' Rouge's battered mind cried. 'stop… please...'

Just then, one of the Tails Dolls pulled Rouge down so her back was no longer against the wall. The screaming ended as abruptly as it began. The Doll shifted its grip to hold her in midair, its limp hovering doll body belying the strength of the tendrils coming out of its back.

"Pain threshold calculated. Beginning audio recording of interrogation."

Its dull black eyes flashed green for an instant, and Rouge felt a tingle run down her body.

"Medical Examination completed. Subject is 'Rouge the Bat,' Regional Underboss. Identification code 591-TYN-6501. Species: Hybrid Trachops Desmodus. Age is nineteen years, seven months, eight days. Weight is 26.4 kilograms."

Rouge smirked. "Twenty four kilos, thank you very much."

"Attempt at misinformation detected," The Doll said, tonelessly. "Initiating Punishment."

Rouge immediately felt pure pain shoot through her entire body. It felt like hundreds of red-hot needles being drawn over her body. Squeezing her eyes shut, and setting her jaw, she held back the instinct to scream. Again and again, pain washed over her, and then…

It was over.

"Punishment was administered for exactly 2.0 seconds," The Doll said, as if nothing unusual had occurred. "Continuing Examination. Subject appears healthy and in excellent physical condition. Medical examination complete. Records filed for later use."

Trying to ignore the lingering pain, Rouge looked around to try and get her bearings. It seemed impossible, but it almost looked like she was back in the Eclipse Chamber. Except that the walls were different, and there was this strange alien looking crystal everywhere. Narrowing her eyes, Rouge tried to get a good look at the inner Eclipse Chamber.

Yes: there it was. It was the Chamber! Someone had reactivated it, but it was obviously still operating improperly. Little popping sparks of chaos energy were floating around but refusing to properly coalesce. Instead, there was some king of device in the center of the chamber, and what looked like… Amy Rose? What was going on?

There were also moving lights orbiting her at different distances.

What looked like six of the lights formed some kind of outer shell or ring, and three on the inside. There were two other figures, too. One looked to be pinned up next to one of the inner lights, and the other seemed to be shooting some kind of energy into him or her. It was causing some kind of beam to shoot out into the center of the Eclipse Chamber, where the device and Amy were.

"Beginning Questioning. Question One," the Doll's voice abruptly changed to a recording; Shadow's voice smoke out of it, "_Why did you do it?_"

Rouge shook her head.

"Subject is not cooperating. Repeating Question," the Doll's monotone turned back to a recording of Shadow's voice. "_Why did you do it?_"

Rogue still didn't respond, too confused and disturbed by the unexpected dissonance and the unanswerable nature of the question.

"Initiating Punishment."

For a second time, a tidal wave of pain swept her away. This time, this time Rouge did scream. It seemed to last forever, this time: one endless stream of mind numbing agony. And then, just as soon as it had come, it was gone. The Doll still looked up at her, expressionless.

"Punishment was administered for exactly 3.0 seconds. Repeating Question: _Why did you do it?_"

"I… I don't know what…"

"Answer is insufficient. Initiating Punishment."

Rouge writhed; her whole body felt like it was going to melt away. No screams escaped her parted lips, only a low gurgle as her throat muscles spasmed wildly. Nothing in her life had ever come close to the all-encompassing anguish that defined her existence at that moment. Worse still, as the pain reached a fever pitch, she found that she couldn't black out, no matter how much she wished she could. It seemed like an eternity before; finally, mercifully, it was all over.

"Punishment was administered for exactly 4.0 seconds. Repeating Question: **_Why did you do it?_**"

Rouge's mouth took a few seconds before any real words formed, as small tremors of pain shot through her. "I… I don't know…"

"Answer is insufficient. Initiating…"

"Wait!" She yelped, tears in her eyes. "Shadow, wait, I…! I had to! You'd have killed me! You were going to kill us all!"

The Doll looked at her for a long, terrible second.

"Answer is… sufficient. Processing. New threshold established at 4.0 seconds. Second Question," The Doll continued, without even giving her time to recover. "_Do you know that you are going to die here?_"

"Oh… no… please…" Rouge begged. "What - what do you want me to say?"

The Doll simply stared at her.

"Subject is not cooperating. Repeating Question." It switched back over to Shadow's voice. "_Do you know that you are going to die here?_"

"Please… just…"

"Initiating Punish..."

"Yes! Yes I know!"

The Doll paused. It seemed to be looking up, and the red pin on its forehead was glowing. Then it looked straight at her again.

"Answer is sufficient. Processing. Third Question: _What is the nature of your relationship with Miles Prower? Why were you working for him? Tell me!_"

"W - what? I don't understand!"

"You will answer to the satisfaction of this unit. Failure will result in escalating levels of Punishment." The Doll floated closer. "Repeating Question: _What is the nature of your relationship with Miles Prower? Why were you working for him? Tell me!_"

"I – he," Rouge stalled, trying to get one of her arms a bit loose. She decided to just tell a mix of truth and lies, anything to buy time. "We worked together before, back at Station Square. We became friends back then, and recently, he contacted me to see if I was interested in helping him out. You know?"

The Doll stared at her with lifeless eyes.

"He wanted my help with some stuff out west, near Casino Night. You know where that is? During the trip, we became close, and he confided in me that he had a plan to end the war. He also promised to make it worth my while. My situation wasn't exactly rosy at the time. GUN was starting to get more xenophobic than usual, and I didn't have a lot of contacts and the Kingdom of Acorn was already pretty suspicious of what I was doing…"

"Detecting obfuscation techniques." The Doll stated, seeing through her attempts to buy time. "Initiating Punishment."

The pain came as fresh and sharp as always, burning like a white light through every pore in her body. It seared through flesh down to bone and then bounced back, worse, on the way out. Over and over and _over_ and _over_ and **over**.

"Punishment was administered for exactly 4.5 seconds. Request: narrow down answer."

'That was only half a second longer than before?' Rouge wondered, and despaired.

"He's my boss," she answered, telling it what it wanted to know. Or what Shadow wanted to know by proxy. "He told me what to do!"

The doll stared at her intently.

"We're also… together… kind of," she added, hoping it would be enough.

"Answer is sufficient. Processing. New threshold established at 4.5 seconds. Fourth Question," The Doll continued. Rouge suddenly realized, with absolute certainty that this **thing** wouldn't hesitate to torture her into madness and not even know it.

It switched to Shadow's voice again.

His questions.

"_I liked you, Rouge, I really did,_" the recording rambled. "_I told you about Maria. I trusted you. I trusted you and you betrayed me. No, not just me! You betrayed Maria's dream! I can't forgive you! I can't! I can't!_"

Shadow's voice cracked as he continued, through proxy, "_I thought you understood… I thought you understood **me** - I mean Maria! Maria **trusted** you and **believed** in you and you **stabbed** her in the back! You **stabbed** her and **betrayed** her and **hurt** her **ruined** her and **ruined everything!** You're going to die here! You're going to suffer and die just like Maria did! Maybe then you'll understand, but she still won't forgive you! I won't forgive you! I won't! Maria's forgiveness is too good for you!_"

Listening to Shadow rant through the Doll's recording, Rouge felt cold fear meet grim reality. He was insane.

He was _completely fucking insane_.

"_It was a mistake to trust you, I can see that now. I can see it. I do._" The recording became slightly more lucid but no less insane. "_Maria may pray for you in heaven, but I'll make sure you go to Hell where you belong! You and everyone else! I just want to make sure you know that before you die. Now, tell me, tell me, Rouge! Tell me why: **why do you deserve to live!** Tell me that!_"

The Tails Doll finally finished the recording.

"Am… am I seriously supposed to answer that?" Rouge asked, having just slightly gotten her arm loose; Shadow's lunatic rant had bought her just the time she needed.

The Doll's red pin glowed again, as it shared the information with the other Dolls. They spoke in a robot language a billion times faster than any living creature, sharing information, plans of action, thoughts, responses, schemes… and then deciding on the best one, proceeded to execute those plans. Working her arm down her side, reaching for one hidden pocket in her catsuit, Rouge wondered if she had ever known the fear she felt at that moment. The sheer panic.

There was nothing these things simply would not do to her.

No act they balked at.

"Subject will answer the question as proposed," the Doll demanded. "Failure will result in Punishment."

"Why do I deserve to live, huh?" Rouge asked, slipping the tip of her index finger into the hidden slip. "I'm not sure I know. I've always looked out for myself, so I can't say I deserve to live because of altruism. I don't know if the good I've done outweighs the bad. Maybe I _don't_ deserve to live. Maybe none of us do, Shadow."

The Doll was still watching, recording.

'Just a little closer…!'

"The way I see it, living is better than dying… And I'm pretty greedy, so, really…" Rouge finally felt it between her fingers. "That's all the justification I need!"

Slipping the concealed ring around her finger, she balled her hand into a fist and activated it. A surge of energy flowed up and into her body. A pale glow rippled across her skin. Pushing against the coiled tendrils around her body, Rouge managed to slip her wings out.

The Doll looked at her almost curiously. "Punishment…"

The second Rouge felt the metal tentacles slip and readjust to hold down her flapping wings, she pounced. Whatever mechanism the Doll used to subdue and torture her was no longer effective. Not with the ring active. Not with it providing her near invulnerability!

With every iota of strength in her body, with every fiber of her being, Rouge pulled her hand down, metal climbing claws at full extension, raking the Doll across its face. Instead of fluff coming out of the wounds, however, bits of fur and wires trailed from the wound. Rouge didn't let it deter her, however, and she dug her fingers deep into the Doll's unarmored body, tearing and crushing.

It let out an unearthly scream and started to squirm wildly, the red pin flashing erratically. Finally, Rouge pulled back her hand, taking large chunks of the Doll out with it. Bits of wire, bits of fur, and bits of yellow goo… it trailed down her hand to the wrist, and leaked out onto the floor. The Doll's grip loosened even more, and Rouge finally broke free of the tendrils entirely. With a pitiful half squeal half moan the Tails Doll slumped to the ground.

Then, as she knew it would, the other Dolls unleashed their Sonic Screams.

It hit her like a wall of force but washed over her invulnerable aura. It wouldn't last long. One active, the ring couldn't be turned off. It rapidly consumed Chaos Energy, converting it into a sparkling shield, but Rouge had almost no intrinsic ability to generate Chaos or Ring Energy of her own and Miles had explained that it would only protect her for a few seconds. Standing up, she wished she could have seen a surprised, fearful, or even enraged look on the Dolls. Even now, they were expressionless - lacquer black eyes unblinking and soulless, with no spark of emotion or intelligence.

Whether they stopped screaming or not, the remaining Dolls turned on her, lashing out with their tendrils. Rouge leapt, her battle senses still honed and ready. Thankfully, the metal tentacles weren't very fast, and she ducked and twisted past them before they could wrap around her. A Doll in front of her tried to float away, but Rouge was too quick. Jumping, she spun her foot in a wide arc, cutting the thing in half with her iron edged boot. Before it even hit the ground, she had moved onto the next one, which tried desperately to guard itself with its tendrils.

Rouge somersaulted over its defense, landed behind it, and plunged her clawed hand into its exposed back. There was no armor to it, no real hard plates. No bones or endoskeleton. It writhed like a stuck squid, and Rouge tore it in half just below the shoulder. She turned, just as a tendril wrapped around her leg.

It pulled sharply and she fell, hitting the back of her head on the ground.

She'd barely noticed it, but her invincibility was gone. The two remaining Dolls hit her with another sonic attack. The Scream was deafening, just as before, paralyzing her and tearing her ears apart. But she already knew what to do. Reaching up to her ears, Rouge plugged them with her fingers – initially it did next to nothing to dampen the Scream, but that wasn't what she was doing. With a yowl of pain, nothing compared to what the Dolls had already inflicted on her, Rouge punctured her own eardrums, deafening herself.

Suddenly, there was only soft white noise.

The Dolls drifted back, trying to get away. Rouge snarled savagely, grabbing the half-body of the Doll she had just killed. Flipping it around with all her strength, she tossed it at the others, tangling several attacking tendrils. Using the confusion to her advantage, she kicked free of the loosened grip around her ankle and scrambled along the ground, before jumping and landing on the two remaining Dolls.

Plunging her hands onto the first one she could reach, she tore away at it. Its sole remaining comrade flailed at her with its paralyzing tentacles, forcing Rouge to roll off to the side and jump away. In its pale black eyes, Rouge saw reflected all the suffering she had endured…and all the suffering countless others had endured at the hands of these abominations and the sick madman who invented them. By the time she was done with it, the Tails Doll was an indescribable and unrecognizable pile of fur and yellow dyed connective fluid.

Rouge got to her feet, slowly.

The carnage of the room was mute testament to her accomplishment.

And what she had done… to herself.

Still unable to hear, Rouge never knew he was behind her before it was too late. 'Not again!' she cursed, as he swept her feet out from under her. An unbreakable grip seized her by the throat and slammed her first to the floor, then to the wall, and then back onto the floor. Rolling with the blow and trying to get back on her feet to manage some sort of defense, Rouge shuddered, and saw something sticking out of her chest.

Crystal.

Looking over her shoulder she saw another black hedgehog, one she didn't recognize. Shadow was in front of her, watching, arms crossed. Who was this other monster? Rouge felt herself lift off her feet, but couldn't hear a thing. The other black hedgehog, the crystalline demon, pulled her through the air and towards what she could now see was a… no, not a Chaos Emerald.

A Super Emerald?

"What?" Rouge managed to gasp out. "No…!" She closed her eyes, physically and emotionally beaten. "Someone…"

A blur of movement caught her eye, but she could barely see it.

"Someone…" it hurt to even whisper. "…help…"

* * *

The two saw Shadow first; then what lay beyond him.

"Holy!" Sonic hissed, running past the black hedgehog towards where Rouge and Amy and another girl (Sonic barely recognized her – wasn't she one of the Babylon Rogues?) hung suspended in the air. Left behind, Tails stopped, facing the still glaring Shadow. The latter made no move to stop anyone from approaching the inner chamber.

"Wait!" he yelled, sensing something was amiss. "Sonic!"

Sonic the Hedgehog didn't hesitate.

It wasn't in his nature; it wasn't in his blood; it didn't even occur to him half the time. When presented with a cliff or a broken bridge when running down a road, his first impulse was never to find an alternative route. His second impulse was never to even look and see how deep the gorge was, or how wide the ravine, or how treacherous the potential fall. Sonic the Hedgehog did not hesitate. He would jump a dozen pitfalls before even thinking about stopping.

So he jumped.

And Mephiles was waiting for him.

A dark spine of warped crystal, black and blue and amber, shot out from behind the encroaching darkness. Sonic saw it, at the last second, and tried to turn or dodge. The lance entered his chest, punched clean through, and went back out the other side. It happened all in the span of half a second. Then, like molasses, he drifted within the swirling chaotic vortexes of the blighted Eclipse Chamber towards the sole unpaired Super Emerald.

"How wonderful!" Mephiles himself drifted upwards, the crystals sticking out of his husk of a body vibrating in time with his laughter. "The so called Iblis Trigger arrives at last. I knew you would come, and here you are. It can now begin."

The arcane being directed a pulse of energy onto Sonic's body, and a reciprocal beam bounced back out of the Super Emerald nearby. It met two others, one from near Rouge and one from near Wave. Together, they intersected the center of the chamber, bathing it in purple tinted light. Amy Rose hung there, and above her, the Ark of the Cosmos.

And with a tremendous roar, the Dimensional Prison cracked.

"Yes!" Mephiles crooned. "Iblis! My precious Iblis!"

Four glowing red eyes materialized in the air.

"Damnit!" Miles stepped forward, but Shadow cut him off.

"Don't interfere!" the black hedgehog snarled. "Worry about yourself!"

"Is this what you want, Shadow?" the two tailed fox yelled, pointing behind him to the growing nightmare engulfing the Eclipse Chamber.

"Is this what you want Gerald's legacy to be?" he asked. "Look at that thing! Look at it!"

Shadow started to laugh. "You… you have no idea what I want! **I am Gerald Robotnik's legacy!** Do you see her, back there, do you? Your co-conspirator?"

Miles snarled, bearing his teeth.

"She suffered... She suffered because of **you!**" Shadow's eyes grew wild and unhinged; black licks of ethereal energy rose up around him, completely out of control. "Now it's your turn to pay for what you did to Maria's dreams! I've sworn it to her!"

"Alright, that's fine by me!" Tails wrapped his namesakes around his torso and clutched his hands to his shoulders. "This close to the end, neither of us has a reason to hold back anymore!"

The kitsune gave a pained wince and lifted his hands.

Four of his fingers came back bloody.

"CHAOS SIPHON!" Tails drew back one leg, widening his stance as a great wind blew away from his frame. Golden lines ran down his arms and legs and melded into the red metal bracing his gloves. With a rush of light and air, red plated metal assembled around the back of his shoulders, centered around two cylindrical protrusions.

"Ring Generators!" The underlying latticework circuitry built into his gloves burned red hot. "Maximum throughput!"

Shadow's own body began to glow white.

"Let's see it! I know you brought it!" he yelled. "I can feel it!"

"You fool!" Tails' grin pulled back his lips, showing a mouthful of sharp teeth. "Where the Hell do you think I'd keep the last Chaos Emerald?" He slammed a fist into his chest. "You want it? **Come and Get It.**"


	38. A Flawed and Imperfect World iii

"Let's see it! I know you brought it!" he yelled. "I can feel it!"

"You fool!" Tails' grin pulled back his lips, showing a mouthful of sharp teeth. "Where the Hell do you think I'd keep the last Chaos Emerald?!" He slammed a fist into his chest. "You want it? **Come and Get It.**"

With a feral roar, Shadow charged, slamming into the fox at full speed. The impact sent them both backwards, smashing into and through one of the Eclipse's Chamber's shielded bulkheads. Crashing to a stop, half buried in twisted metal and burning circuitry, Miles arms strained to block Shadow's hands, keeping them from wrapping around his throat. The ultimate life form pressed down, white nearly transformation-grade chaos energy rippling away from his body like ripples in a pool.

The Siphons build into the kitsune's shoulders spat green fire.

And Tails struck. Shadow danced backwards, blocking a dozen strikes by Miles' tails. The twin appendages blurred as they struck, again and again, thrusting and slicing and sweeping. Shadow parried them all and moved in again with a chaos powered fist. Utterly demolishing the uprooted generator thrown in his way. Plowing through the wrecked machinery, he came face to face with a golden ring large enough to dive through.

The explosion shook the Eclipse Chamber itself.

"Tch," Mephiles snorted, sparing a glance over his shoulder before going back to properly preparing the Soul Furnace. It wouldn't do for either of those fools to interfere and damage such a delicate operation. While this was nothing like the great sacrifice Melchesidec had demanded back when Iblis was first sealed, crafting a new key to force open the Dimensional Prison was tricky work.

Having seen and examined Erazor's lamp in detail and from it the basic requirements for another Burning Key, Mephiles felt all but certain of his triumph so long as there were no more significant interruptions. Ideally, his now useless pawns, Silver and Blaze, had been crippled or killed. The Iblis Trigger was in his hands. It was perfect!

The souls of the three: the Trigger, known in this era as Sonic, the troublesome spy, Rouge, and the criminal mechanic, Wave, would be used to forge a new Key tailored to the dimensional lock built into the Ark of the Cosmos. Already the prison door had opened enough for Iblis herself to begin to manifest in the physical world. Black veins of nightmare energy were already spreading throughout the structure, altering it to better suit her whims. The pure soul of the girl, Amy Rose, would be the axis on which the others were oriented. She would serve to pacify Iblis until the time was right.

Very soon Iblis herself would be free, and together, they would become Solaris!

Then that old demon, Melchesidec, would watch as his world became a new blazing sun. The light of Solaris would spread, infiltrating every crack and crevasse of the blighted planet Mobius. Together, Mephiles and Iblis, as it was meant to be, would become the new God of a blackened world! All would worship and tremble in fear at the merest whisper of their name!

The bowels of the Fallen City shook as Shadow's back hit the unyielding adamantine metal that lined the heart of Helios Superchamber. This was the outer sphere between the city itself and the reactor within. Even then it deformed slightly, a web of cracks spreading from the point of impact. Pushing back with his elbows, the once jet black hedgehog shot forward and slammed a fist into the face of his kitsune opponent. Miles' fell back and down, his tails cutting twin furrows in the wall as he slowed his fall.

The two stood horizontal on the nearly vertical surface.

Miles' eyes darted to the side, as something long and black snaked, moving like a ghost between the metal walls. It wasn't alone. More and more of the murky shadows moved, and soon the entire structure began to warp and twist. There was no time to study the phenomenon.

Shadow was on him in a millisecond, the flames from his rocket-assisted footwear scorching the vast curved walls as he sped by, slashing with his Chaos empowered quills. The fox leaned back and warded off the attack with his hands, even as trails of blood filled the air. Shadow slammed one foot down in midspin, tensed for a heartbeat, and launched into a Homing Attack that struck the surprised vulpine square in the chest. Tails skidded across the ground, but at the last second spun his tails, slowing himself before he hit the wall behind him.

'I won't last long in close quarters like this! But am I far enough away from everyone else?' he wondered. 'Yes. Yes, I am!'

It was time to try _that_.

Concentrating, Tails began to release swarms of rings from his arms and legs. Noticing this, Shadow flew off to the side, wary of getting caught by the bouncing, rolling rings. Then they did the unexpected: the rings started to slip into the wall, as if their substance was immaterial. Other rings settled in midair. Within seconds, they were as thick as flies on a corpse, filling the air, and unseen to the eye, deep within the walls and floors.

"Now!" Tails slammed his hands together. "Watch carefully! This is only the second weapon of mass destruction I've ever used!!"

A shimmering sphere enveloped him.

"Some sort of lightning shield?" Shadow guessed, based on the look and feel. "What is…?"

Tails started to spin.

He moved slowly at first, just one long slow revolution. The walls to either side cracked with an unseen force and the rings in the air began to vibrate visibly. Shadow narrowed his eyes and felt a slight pull. It wasn't significant and he ignored it. More important events were occurring: Miles was spinning faster and faster, and everything around him was simply disintegrating. Within moments, the kitsune was impossible to see. There was a massive storm of lightning, fire and glowing particles surrounding him in an ever expanding sphere.

Inside the spinning sphere, Miles smirked.

'High frequency rings combined with the energetic nature of a lightning shield,' he thought, glad the theory had panned out so well. 'When rotated at high speed, the result is a plasma field that can annihilate any matter it draws in! Even air is sucked in, taking anything nearby in with it! This produces a toroidal field of almost one hundred meters in which nothing can survive!'

"This is my Maelstrom!!"

Shadow could feel the pull growing stronger. His rocket shoes fired up, helping to fight the now nearly hurricane force winds sucking anything not nailed down into the burning plasma tornado. In seconds, even gigantic plates of metal ripped free and hurled into the vortex, only to burn up and feed the ever expanding plasma sphere of doom. Chunks of concrete and steel beams flew through the air.

"Heh!" Shadow smirked, unloading twin Chaos Spears into the growing conflagration. They vanished harmlessly into the spinning Maelstrom.

Shadow's mad grin widened in excitement.

'He really is a weapon of mass destruction!' Shadow thought, gleefully. 'Well, so am I!'

Shadow could feel the Super transformation just on the edge of his subconscious. His body just needed a little more, just a tiny nudge, to go Super. The brat had the seventh Emerald literally inside himself, and the proximity to him now was almost enough to do the job, but not quite. He needed more. He needed enough to really tap into the Emerald. More! He needed more! More!!

"Is that **it**?" Shadow roared, using Chaos Control to root himself in place. "Is that all you've got?!"

With the power flowing through the air and into his body, it was possible to use Chaos Control to teleport short distances almost constantly. Even as everything nearby tore up and fed into the now fifty meter wide sphere, Shadow remained in place. Entire sections and floors of the city uprooted. Others weren't sucked in, but they were instead buffeted and blown apart like chaff. The friction in the air ignited anything flammable, and caused massive lightning strikes.

One shot by, just inches from Shadow's face.

Gradually, the plasma storm began to rise, higher and higher, excising a massive hundred meter wide dome above them. Stress fractures tore open even that, exposing the uppermost levels of Helios. Finally, the dynamo began to die down, having exhausted every scrap of matter in range of its spin. By the time it was done, a great chunk of the inner Eclipse chamber was gone: it looked like a ball of ice cream that someone had taken a scoop out of. Almost thirty floors of the Flying City had been ripped apart.

Miles hung in midair, his tails spinning behind him.

"How… how the hell… did you…?" the fox gasped for air. "Damnit!"

"That was quite an impressive little spin," Shadow stated, spinning his finger in the air. "Can you do it again?"

Miles floated back.

"My normal Chaos Spears don't seem to be working well on you, so," Shadow thrust his hands forward and a black and red orb blended together between his palms. "Let's see just how much Chaos Energy you can nullify!"

* * *

Knothole

Fifteen minutes from Impact.

Less than a mile to the south, around Evacuation Point Delta, the fighting was fierce. Unable to cause enough damage from above, robot forces were making a suicidal push into the city at ground level, targeting any air or ground transport craft they could. The moment they did, they came under fire from entrenched mobian forces – sniper fire from building windows, grenades from around corners, rockets and man-portable mortars from behind concrete bulwarks and heaped rubble. Still they drove forward.

Cream Rabbit ran up a flight of steps, chest heaving. Adrenalin pumped through her veins, and her fight or flight response was in high gear. She had already dismissed the latter for the former. Even though a Notice of Non-Conscription had been mailed to her, with the King's Seal on it, she knew what she had to do. She was a Freedom Fighter, and while she'd come to Knothole from Cheyenne in the east for some R&R and to catch up with her older sister, her duty to Mobius always came first.

She was only one of about a hundred and twenty Freedom Fighters in Knothole.

They operated alone or in pairs, making hit and run attacks and harrying the invaders, usually behind their own lines. Freedom Fighter training was different from that of the Dingo or the Royal Armed Forces. It emphasized stealth, speed and asymmetric warfare, avoiding the sort of static defenses, combined arms, and operations-in-force doctrines that the dingo operated under, and the rigid command structure that made up the Royal Army. Though both organizations technically operated under the overall command of acting Cavalier (the equivalent of Colonel) Hershey Cat, stationed in the city with General Stryker, in practice the individual FF squads and individuals acted virtually of their own accord.

In this city of Knothole, sporadic gunfire and the thundering from overhead almost sounded like rain. Yet, something… some bloodlust… it made her smile at the thought of fighting, which was something she had never done before. She had fought several times, but it had always been with a mixture of fear and apprehension, never excitement… never eagerness. But there was no time to dwell on it.

Kicking open a door to an abandoned apartment, Cream reached behind her and snapped loose a long tubular weapon. Sidestepping cautiously over to the east-facing window in the main room, she reached into a satchel and retrieved a pointed head for the weapon. Quickly inserting it into the end of the body, and loading the rocket propelled grenade, she inched closer to the window and looked out over one of Knothole's many streets. Parts of the cobbles stonework had been blown out, leaving scorched black craters that impeded movement. Part of a building across the street was on fire, and half of it had already collapsed. At least four bodies were strewn about, all burned badly, with one half buried by rubble.

Cream's sensitive rabbit ears heard them coming before she actually saw them.

The first one in view was a Combot, armed with a heavy long barreled machine gun – it was colored dark gray and white, the same camouflage colors everyone in the city had been given to blend in with an urban environment. That it was alone made her especially wary. Flipping down the blue tinted eyesight attached to her helmet, she saw two more Combots flanking the first. They had been cloaked…

Luckily, the Freedom Fighters had been quick to develop a means of finding cloaked Combots. Most of the models produced after 3236 didn't even have the function anymore. The older ones, though, were more 'experienced' than the new ones and had learned to use their cloak sparingly and for short-range recon. The three bots were running a sweep over the nearby buildings in advance of more troops.

Cream ducked low and hid.

A few seconds later, she took out a small pocket mirror with a retractable stock and used it to look out the window, using the reflection to find the uncloaked Combot. She saw it move aside just as a crowd of black shapes began to march forward. SWATbots! She grinned viciously at the thought of sending a whole formation of them sprawling. SWATbots were much weaker than Combots, having only one fourth the armor and using weaker built-in pulse weapons. Their lanky forms were also easier to hit in a firefight than Combots, who tended to squat or take cover before returning fire.

Carefully peeking over the edge of the window, she quickly estimated how many SWATbots were present and of what type. It seemed to be a mix of the Type 30 (the old Beta-Betas or Beta-2s), a few Type 34s, and at least six Type 36s. The post 3236 variant SWATbot, she knew, carried a much heavier armament than the older models, and its internal pulse cannon had a much higher rate of fire than the other ones. Before her eyes, the ranks of SWATbots parted, and a large APC rolled forward on heavy treads. Escorting it, and likely piloting it, were war-mod robians. Unlike most robians, who ended up as workers, others were modified to act as either combat engineers during the Second Great War, or as disposable grunts.

"What? Oh-ho… I see…" She watched, as several of the robians held out their arms, which seemed bulkier than normal, and began to move them in a back and forth manner, scanning the road ahead for air-launched and dispersed landmines. Shaking her head, Cream braced herself, and picked a target – the treads of the APC, near the front.

"We can't have you doing that…"

Swiftly standing, she lowered and aimed the RPG launcher, and let the rocket fly. It roared out of the tube with a loud hiss, and a second later – before any of the surprised robots could find effective cover – exploded between two wheels in the APC's treads, blowing the whole system to hell and sending three robians and two SWATbots flying, pieces of metal spiraling from their broken bodies. Dropping the spent tube, Cream raised her rifle, held by a strap around her right shoulder, and took aim at the two remaining robians. A burst of fire cut the first down, body convulsing as armor piercing bullets cut through to vital electronics and pneumatic systems. The other tried to run, and Cream ducked some return fire as she picked it off with another burst of semi-automatic death.

Retreating from her position at the window, she fell backwards as red plasma blasts tore apart the window frame, and seared deep black holes in the ceiling. Gathering her things, she scrambled out of the room, and down the steps. Not far off, she heard explosions, and guessed that they were old Type-30 SWATbots being ordered to 'clear' the minefield. Grinning ear to ear, she headed out of the building, and across a small alley. Heading down it, towards another street, she held her rifle at the shoulder. Feeling confidant, she was about to cross the next street when a loud explosion sent her flying.

Gunfire answered in return, as the street became a horizontal rain of fire.

"Shoot…!" Cream backed up against the nearest wall, heart pounding. Following it to a door, she found it already open, and raced inside. On the first floor, she saw a dingo helping a badger to lie back against a wall near the stairs up to the second floor. He was holding his side, and she could see the black stained burn that had fused his clothes, fur and flesh into one terrible collection of necrotic tissue. Trickles of thick red blood oozed out from cracks in the burned mass.

Plasma.

"Medic!" The dingo cried, "Hey! I need a medic here!"

"Did someone… Oh!" A female rabbit, a southern cottontail like Cream except in a nurse's uniform, rounded the corner to what looked like the building's lobby. She took one look at the wounded mobian and wrapped her arm under his, helping to hold him up and move him towards the lobby. He groaned a few times, and as soon as he was out of the dingo's care, he turned to face the newcomer.

"A Freedom Fighter," he said, seeing no rank or insignia on her clothes. "We could use another rifle upstairs. Unless you've got another appointment…?"

"Not at the moment," Cream replied with a small smirk. "Lead the way."

"Great! This way!" The dingo hefted his own rifle and headed for the stairs with Cream in hot pursuit. He the marks on his shoulder, and what she remembered of dingo rank, she figured him to be a Warrior, Alpha Class… the dingo equivalent of a Private, second class. The sigil on his arm indicated he was part of the Eighth Platoon, one of fifteen dingo platoons charged with the defense of the city.

He wore the normal gray and dirty white fatigues, black combat boots, and seemed only equipped with a rifle and a sidearm. The rifle itself was large and bulky, but the also large and bulky dingo soldier carried it with ease, even though it looked like it weighed twice as much as her assault rifle. She could also see that, unlike her rifle, his had an under slung grenade launcher (a favorite of the dingo armed forces) and a permanently affixed bayonet that folded back and to the side.

They went up two floors and down a short hall to a room that may have once been a dance hall. It had obviously been modified by the dingo, who had beefed up the supports with concrete, and put down sandbags near a wall with firing stations. A few boxes of ammunition, disposable CLAWs, plastic explosives, grenades and the like were also behind sandbags, put together into a small arsenal. Looking around, she saw at least twenty dingo, about half a platoon, and a squad of ten mobians in two fire teams.

All four of the machine gun nets were occupied, and firing sporadically; nearby, another large dingo was standing over a communications radio with two other officers. He had the microphone to his mouth, and was trying to make himself heard over the cackle of machine guns and the occasional launch of an RPG or C-LAW.

"SCC! This is Station Echo Five! Repeat: Station Echo Five! Eighth Platoon! Requesting indirect fire on sector Delta Six! Over?" He took his thumb off the microphone activator and waited for a response. There was static for a second, before another voice responded from Supreme City Command.

"This is SCC," a voice on the other side of the radio answered. "We read you Echo Five. Indirect fire is on the way. Coordinates Delta Six. Over."

"When can we expect those fast movers, SCC?" The dingo asked back. "We're taking a pounding here!"

"No friendly skies, Echo Five. Repeat: No Friendly Skies." The voice responded. "You will be informed when air support becomes available."

"Damn it…" The dingo nodded to himself, and handed the radio microphone over to the communications officer. He looked up, quickly scanned the room, before his eyes settled on Cream. Or more exactly: the RPG launcher she had strapped to her back. "You! Freedom fighter!"

"Cream Rabbit, sir." She inclined her head in respect but didn't salute the dingo Lieutenant. The Freedom Fighters didn't have a real system of rank, except the division between the original FF, and those they trained. No rank, she figured, no salute.

"Cream Rabbit? Alright… Lieutenant Roh, Commander: Eighth Platoon. We need more troops on anti-armor detail." The dingo pointed to the ammo dump. "Load up and head out."

"Ah, sir. You should know… the minefield east of here, down the South Josephine Road… it's been compromised." Cream explained. "I slowed 'em down, but they're going to punch through in a few minutes."

"I see." The dingo frowned deeply. "How many?"

"Probably another whole Company. Is there anyone to hold that approach?"

"Michaels and the Third should be able to handle it." The dingo nodded to himself, as if unsure. "Yes, he'll hold the road. I need you down at ground level. We're seeing a lot of heavies coming our way. More than Intel led us to believe."

"Right. I'll get on it." Cream nodded, and the dingo did the same. Going their separate ways, Cream headed for the building's small armory and picked up a small crate of four RPGs, and a bandolier of grenades. As she headed downstairs, a series of loud explosions shook the building, and bits of paint and plaster fell from the walls and ceiling. She hurried down, through the lobby and past the injured, and into another boulevard. There, mobians and dingo were waiting for the smoke to clear at the far end of the street that had just been demolished by mortar fire.

Here, Knothole truly looked like a warzone.

Down the street, no building was intact. It had either been leveled by enemy fire trying to root out snipers, or friendly fire hoping to slow down the enemy assault. Smoke and ash filled the sky, and fires burned consuming what was left standing. Along the sides of the road, smashed and destroyed APCs and Assault Badniks lay in ruins, near broken bots of all types. High above, the incessant cracks of thunder still sounded as the air war continued unabated. And in the air, from this angle, Cream could see it… the floating city called Perfect Defense Fortress Helios…

It loomed over the treeline, like an approaching mountain.

"Miles…" She wasn't sure why she whispered it.

She wasn't sure why she was… worried… about him…

He had left her. Left her for Rouge. And why? Because of some disgusting lust he had no qualms about indulging? He was only hurting himself, only causing himself more pain. She wanted to see him again, to try and talk some sense into him, but by the time she had worked up the courage it was too late. He had left her for this… for this last great battle… as much as he had for Rouge.

Maybe - maybe if she had tried harder, she could have helped him.

Changed him somehow.

He was living the life he felt he deserved, now. He was a leader, a commander, a rogue, overshadowed by and subordinate to no one. What the Hell would happen if the war actually ended, Cream couldn't begin to guess. It was all too big, too overwhelming, to even contemplate.

Through the smoke, dark shadows began to move.

"Another wave!" A mobian soldier, gloves hands gripping a machinegun like it was a lifesaver, yelled to the others in the street. "Open fire! Destroy Them All!"

Even as the tempo of battle overwhelmed her like a tide, she wondered.

Like the howl of winter wild, a beam weapon lanced out from the smoke, a short blast of light and fire that hit a nearby barricade, blowing it to dust and smoke. Through the haze, a modified light 'caterkiller' badnik moved forward, heavily damaged by mortar fire but still operational. Most of its armor seemed shorn away, but the large cannon mounted on a spinal assembly attached to its back were still fully functional. The barrel began to glow in preparation to fire, before a trio of rockets, visible only by the spiral of fire and smoke behind them, slammed into the exposed areas of the robot, tearing the rear sections from the front and engulfing the whole thing in flame.

'Is there anything left of you, Tails?' She wondered, body shaking as she fired her rifle from behind the cover of concrete and sandbags. Down the street, a SWATbot disintegrated under the hail of bullets, falling backwards and into pieces. 'Is there anything left you care about?'

She remembered the Notice of Non-Conscription.

'I am Bunnie's sister… but… I hope…'

Another APC rolled forward, the turret on the top firing red plasma death. Next to her, a dingo yelped as his face disappeared. She watched, out of the corner of her eye, as he fell back with a sick gurgle. The ducked down, and tried to reload another RPG, but as the fire intensified, her fingers failed her, and she began to fumble. Cursing softly, she put the RPG down, and found her bandolier.

'I hope… Miles… that you sent me that letter…'

Steeling herself, she stood up, arms crossed over her chest, the air hot with plasma fire. Plucking two grenades from their links, she flicked off the safeties, and threw them down the street. Before they even landed, she hand two more in hand, and threw those individually. Four explosions shook the ground, savaging the ranks of war-mod robians and SWATbots that were approaching under the suppression fire of the APC. Fire continued to rain down from the pillbox nearby, and the holes in the side of the APC began to multiply, before a heavy machinegun finally managed to hit the power supply.

The resulting explosion turned the APC inside out.

'I have to hope…'

Cream suddenly felt a pain. Looking down, she saw a jagged length of steel, a foot long, sticking out of her upper left chest, between the breast and the shoulder. Fear gripped her – had it hit her heart? Would she lose her arm? Would she lose her life?

'That you wanted me to live…'

Holding the metal, the base of which was sticky red with blood, she felt her feet give out. She didn't even feel herself hitting the ground. The world was spinning. There was more fire, more smoke in the sky… so much… why couldn't she see the clear blue sky? Why couldn't she see…

"MEDIC!!"

* * *

A black and red pillar of light speared the Flying City, erupting from within it and shooting into the sky. Flying badniks and drones, dueling in the air above Helios, exploded in a dozen budding midair fires. Another distant explosion rocked the foundations of an already weakened building, sending one side of it crumbling to the ground below. The other half tottered and fell as two giant pieces.

Shadow laughed at the destruction.

Never, in his entire life, had he been so uninhibited. Never had he felt so free. His body was almost entirely covered in white now. Only a few isolated bits of black remained. He had never actually transformed before, at least not consciously. There had only been that one time, a "synchronization event" back on the ARK, and he had quickly passed out afterwards. He couldn't even remember what had happened, but he had seen footage and pictures.

'My transformation! I'm almost there!' He shot forward into the crumbling and blasted remains of the city. His fight had actually done enough damage to expose the light from the surface of the city, so far above the deeply buried Eclipse Chamber.

He found his enemy encased in a thick sphere of polymer gel.

He had actually used it on himself to cushion that last Chaos Blast! It began to slouch off, and a second alter, it vaporized. Miles flew back, shaking a few bits of vibration inactivated material out of his bangs and fur. Neither one of them had touched ground for a while now, but neither were built for extended flight. Even the kitsune with his ability to fly using his tails, obviously preferred to be land bound.

The brat had something in his hand: not a ring bomb, though.

Shadow angled his shoes and shot forward, aiming to investigate. The boy tossed the bulky looking device and Shadow got only a passing look at it. It seemed to be some sort of cylinder but with rings around it. While it seemed innocuous, Shadow had learned that prudence was called for when the two tailed menace whipped out something new. Rather than rush past it, or try and bat it aside, Shadow zipped off to the right at a good distance.

A flash of white forced the ultimate life form to pause, before a blast wave sent him flying. A small sun set, low and pregnant, within the heart of the Flying City: in the wake of that bright flash of light, a vast burning dome of near-nuclear fire crowned and rose. Buildings nearby were blown away, shattered beyond recognition, leaving only ravaged skeletal frameworks behind. Chunks of road and rail, pieces of factory and floor, raced away from the massive explosion before crashing into the black smoke shield around the city.

A burning ring of lightning and ash rose up like a halo.

A great wave of superheated air, hot enough to instantly light clothes on fire, buffed Shadow in midair. Then the overpressure hit like the hand of an angry god. It blew away anything in its path, on the ground or in the air. Shadow tumbled, righted himself, and smashed into the side of a fallen building. He crashed through three separate floors before falling out the side and back down into the half a mile wide hole he and Miles had made earlier.

Before he even hit the ground, Shadow heard him coming.

Miles was like a comet, the Chaos Siphon wired into him venting waste Chaos Energy out the back of his shoulders. Shadow could feel it, even now. The boy had literally kept the Emerald sealed up inside himself this entire time. Now, finally, he was feeding on it and using it to directly empower himself. But unlike Dimitri, who became Enerjak, or that fool Finitevus, this brat had come up with a solution to the problem of tapping an Emerald directly.

It tended to drive one mad, or so Gerald had always said. It was why machines could use Chaos Siphons easily and relatively safely, but why it was taboo for an organic. The body couldn't handle it. The mind couldn't handle it. The boy had worked around the problem by converting all the Chaos Energy he used into more stable "ring energy." What he didn't convert by tapping the Emerald directly, his Siphons vented as waste energy.

Shadow felt it, welcomed it, bathed in it.

"Seven!" his warped mind cried. "I almost have Seven! Hit me! Hit me!"

"Shadow!" Miles roared, a golden hand pulled back to deliver a final blow. "This is it for you!"

The thirty forth floor of Green Sector cratered.

"And _that_ makes… _Seven_," Shadow stated, stopping Miles' fist with an open palm and one of his tails with another. Flakes of ash wafted around the two dueling powers. Shadow exhaled, and the last traces of black vanished from his body. White and red burned like the corona of a newly born star.

Miles eyes grew wide as saucers.

Super Shadow just smirked and thrust his other hand forward. Miles body flared with a bubble shield before it popped and he tumbled off the edge of the crater, over the rim, and into the blasted walls of the next floor. Super Shadow lowered his right hand, and not one, but a hundred Chaos Spears materialized in midair. The lances of energy, now deathly white rather than black, hovered, waiting.

"There," Shadow whispered, twisting his middle finger.

A veritable Rain of Spears descended, obliterating wall after wall and floor after floor around the crater. Shadow completely saturated the area, pouring more and more fire in. Helios' Green Sector bore the brunt of the damage. Seven floors with of machinery and storage areas collapsed and burned. One forth of adjacent Orange Sector crumpled.

"You used Chaos Control," Shadow stated, eyes wandering to his left. "Those holographic decoys of yours are getting on my nerves, brat."

Miles stood, still alive, hurt but unbowed.

"What will you do now?" Shadow asked, chuckling. Holding up his right hand, a small white light danced in the palm of his hand before growing fat and bloated. The kitsune raised an appreciative eyebrow.

Source alive, there was a **lot** of chaos energy in that.

"A Super Transformation is an impressive thing," the fox admitted, and pointed at Shadow. Puzzled, the transformed hedgehog looked down at his chest. Then at his feet. There was nothing there.

"What are you supposed to be pointing at?" Shadow asked, and his shoulders shook as he laughed. "Me?"

Miles finger rose up slightly.

Shadow craned his neck up.

"Oh. That."

Tails immediately accelerated away at top speed. "Alpha Strike. Mark."

Above the two, a five thousand five hundred ton _Egg Predator_ class New Destroyer descended, having just barely punched through the black smoke shield surrounding Helios. The trip through had ripped apart the fore and the bow of the ship, and what accelerated towards the ground now was a burning wreck. Three of the four pulse plasma cannons were still intact enough to open fire, along with all four of the ship's missile arrays.

Blue bolts fell from above, and right behind them, almost a hundred air bursting explosions. Fragmentary/incendiary rounds and high explosive armor piercing fire surrounded Super Shadow, while a quartet of bubble shields rose up, pinning him in place and concentrating the firepower into an even smaller area. The Destroyer continued firing, all the way up and until it nose dived right into the target.

The nearly six thousand ton craft buckled in like a tin can.

* * *

Mephiles hissed as another rumble shook the Soul Chamber.

"Troublesome children…"

Before him, four red-orange eyes burned like ingots of steel in a puddle of darkness. Amy's soul, disguised as Shahra, was barely containing Iblis' immense anger. Mephiles had actually hoped that one of her calmer personalities was in control at the moment, but who knew what her state of mind was actually like by this point? She could have hundreds of personas or just one. She could have even lost her sanity and sentience.

Imprisonment in a dark hole for thousands of years could do that, especially to someone who was already completely unhinged. Erazor had his frozen dream world, and even he, Mephiles, had been able to observe the world around him to keep sane. Using Amy's soul as in place of Shahra's was working, but only just. Even a little slip and the deception would be revealed. Iblis would completely lose control, making it all the harder to both free her and merge with her.

Hence why it did not help to have _nuclear explosions_ going off nearby!

"M – MEPH – MEPHILES…"

A booming voice, the heavenly voice of Iblis, cried out from within the endless burning void. The ancient being's crystalline heart nearly leapt for joy. She saw him. She recognized him. _She was in there_.

"Yes, Iblis, it's me," he whispered, knowing she could hear him. "I've come to save you. To be with you. To become God!"

Another thunderous crash; another interruption! Mephiles whirled on this one with lightning speed, a spark of anger nearly prompting him to lash out. To his surprise, it was a welcome sight.

Super Shadow stood bathed in a pale white light.

"The boy is around here somewhere… draining energy from the chamber," the white Super being observed, looking around. "He's hiding from me like a coward."

Mephiles turned back to his task, disinterested.

"Is that Iblis?" Shadow asked, walking towards the inner chamber. He stared up at the burning eyes of Iblis, and watched as the rift opened a bit more. A blast wave of power, raw, untamed, insane chaos energy, shot out of the widening crack in the Ark of the Cosmos. Shadow could feel it. Iblis herself had power at least equal to all seven of the Chaos Emeralds. No: more!

It was intoxicating.

Black smoke solidified around the portal, forming into the tips of giant fingers. Burning embers fell to the floor and ate through reinforced titanium and hardened metal shielding. The eyes glowed even more hotly, and the giant fingers pressed against the rift, trying to force it open even more. Two of the four eyes slowly started to close.

"Soon," Mephiles promised, "Soon."

Shadow's eyes moved slowly around the Chamber.

Then, without warning, he disappeared, only to reappear next to the Ark of the Cosmos. Mephiles stopped the ritual, for once confused by what he saw. Before he could act, Super Shadow reached out and tore Amy free from her bindings. As one, Rouge, Wave and Sonic screamed in pain. Feedback from the Ark and the ritual slammed into them, causing them to writhe and moan.

"Shadow!" Mephiles roared, turning to spear the Super-being even before he came out of Chaos Control. The crystalline lance stopped short, but only because Shadow held Amy between them.

"What are you doing?" Mephiles was enraged. "We need her!"

"No. **We** don't. " Super Shadow shook his head. "**You** do."

The spikes growing out of Mephiles' body shook with fury.

"MEPHILES!!" a voice like the crack of thunder shook the city. The crystalline entity turned from the Super-transformed Shadow to the now raging Iblis and then back again.

"From what I've heard, Iblis' intentions are more in line with my own," Shadow concluded. "You wish to become one with Iblis? You wish to fancy yourself a God? Tame Iblis yourself."

Mephiles reached for Shadow, blue ice filling the air around him.

But before the entity – immensely powerful as it was – could make a move, three other figures seized the moment to Chaos Control behind him. Outmaneuvered, with Iblis' already fragile calm slipping away, Shadow holding his most important sacrifice hostage, and now these three other intruders, Mephiles hesitated. He tried to access Silver and Blaze's sudden arrival, and guessed that, with their new partner, they wouldn't be coming to assist him. Still, he tried.

"Children! To me!" he commanded. "Reclaim the girl! We can still - "

Lara-Su landed near an unconscious but suffering Rouge.

Blaze floated next to Wave.

Silver was already reaching for Sonic.

"Sorry, old man!" Lara wrapped her arm around the beaten bat and vital sacrifice. "Mel says hi, by the way! Chaos Control!"

Silver and Blaze simply vanished without a word.

Behind him, Shadow laughed.

"No! I won't allow it!" Mephiles nearly lunged for Shadow again, but something dark wrapped around his arm. A thousand crystalline spikes instinctively flexed out in self defense, but merely passed through the shadowy tendril. The ancient entity turned, following the living darkness back to its source.

Iblis now had six eyes.

"MEPHILES."

"Wait. Wait! Iblis, don't you remember me?" he asked, the tendril of living darkness tightening its grip. "I promised... we would be together. You said you loved -- "

And with a sick crunch the tendril retracted, sucking Mephiles the Dark through the narrow crack in space and time and into the burning maw of Iblis. Bits and pieces of dark blue crystal fell from the rip in space before vanishing into the darkness below. The remains of an arm shattered into a million pieces of broken glass.

In Shadow's arms, the most precious sacrifice stirred.

"Sonic?" Amy muttered, barely conscious, but staring up into an almost familiar face.

"No," Shadow replied, seizing her by the throat and lifting her off her feet. "Wrong hedgehog."

"Miles!" he yelled, tightening his grip on the helpless girl. "Your world is **doomed**! Your city is **doomed**! Is there even a single life you can protect? Ehh? What about this one?"

Super Shadow looked around, waiting.

"I know what you're doing! You're trying to transform, like I have! Go ahead, do it, but know that you purchased that time you need with this girl's life!"

Amy's eyes rolled up.

Shadow spun at a flash of gold, firing a Chaos Spear. The transformed ultimate life form had expected a ring decoy – one of the brat's insufferable holograms – but the bolt scored cleanly on flesh and blood. Shadow was pleasantly surprised for all of a half second, he didn't even bother to try and move from his spot.

A wall of nullification polymer solidified around him.

Amy fell out of his grip, her face just inches from the wall of transparent material. Stumbling back, dazed, hurt, confused, she clutched her bruised throat and tried to get her bearings. Buried within the massive slab of polymer material, Super Shadow began to stir. Bubbles formed within the cube.

"Amy!" she heard a familiar voice from the other side of the strange block of ice-like matter. "Amy! Get out of here!"

"Tails?" She carefully slipped around, pressing against the wall, and saw him trying to stand nearby. He'd taken Shadow's attack right to the chest, using his body to gain a chance to score a clean hit with the polymer projection.

"You're hurt!" Amy ran up to him. The attack had left a ragged tear in his chest; blood was running along his side and down his left leg.

"Forget that! I can't… I can't get you out of here myself." He hesitated to explain. "I have something I need to do. Just get some distance away from here!"

Amy didn't leave him, holding onto him for dear life. Clinging onto the rough fur that had grown around his neck and upper body, she cried into his chest, all the fear and pain welling up in a sudden explosion of grief and relief.

"Tails… I'm so scared! I don't… I don't know what's happening! I don't even know where we are!"

"I know… I'm sorry…" The kitsune wrapped his arms protectively around her, careful of her spines. Not so long ago, this had been what he had dreamed of. This had been what he had always wanted. Was this how a hero felt? Was this what he had wanted for so long? Was this what it felt like to be Sonic?

Super Shadow's body crackled angrily with Chaos energy.

"I knew you would come for me, Miles!" Amy buried her face in his chest, and the fox smiled at the sound of his real name. For the first time, she had said it not in anger or annoyance, but in relief.

"Miles…!" Shadow said the same word, but with contempt and vehemence. Even trapped within the polymer shell, his hand moved, twitched, and spat fire. Tails gasped and grabbed Amy's shoulder, just a fraction of a second too late. Shadow's Chaos Spear had lanced out of his index finger, cutting through a solid half meter of nullification polymer, losing strength… getting weaker, but still strong enough to…

In his arms, Tails heard Amy take in a sharp breath. Still on his feet, he looked down and saw that Amy was still in his arms… but he could feel…

He could feel she was…!

The polymer began to boil and flake away as Super shadow chuckled.

"How do you like it?" he asked as the last of it burned away. "To watch, helpless, as someone you care for dies? That's a pain we can begin share now, you and I."

Tails could feel the life draining out of her.

Getting down on one knee he lowered Amy to the ground. Hands trembling, he traced the rim of the hole that had been blown through her small body. He, too, had been hit by the Chaos Spear… but his body was hardened by his own Chaos powers, and the actual blast that made it out of the polymer cube had been weak. It had never been meant to hurt him.

Amy had been Shadow's target from the start.

"A - Amy…" He cradled her head in the crook of his arm, and gently stroked the side of her face. He could see her eyes dilate and move, so she was still alive, but there was so much blood… so much blood… He looked up at Shadow with hate in his eyes.

"Why?! Damn you! She – she didn't have anything to do with this!"

Shadow's own crimson eyes seethed.

"That was **exactly** why," he replied, utterly without remorse, "She had to die for you to understand despair as I do. She had to die for you to grasp just what you have to lose, and what I will take from you."

"Bastard…!"

"S- sonic…" Amy reached up, and ran her hand down the side of his face. Miles immediately turned his attention back to her, and held her stray hand with one of his own.

"Amy. Don't try to speak. You'll… you'll…"

"Sonic…" She said again, a trickle of blood running out of the side of her mouth and down her chin. "Sonic… is that you… I – I can't see you…"

"Amy." Tails looked into her unfocused eyes and realized she was probably hallucinating. He could feel her blood, running over his hands, soaking his gloves, and pooling on the floor. In that instant, he knew what he had to do. Leaning in closer, he whispered, "Yes, Amy. It's me."

"Sonic… sonic… I'm… dying…"

"Amy…"

"Sonic..." Her fingers stroked his cheek fur a little harder, as if her sense of touch was dulling. "I… I promise not to die… if - if you'll marry me… will you… marry me… sonic…?"

"I will, Amy. I'll marry you," Tails said, tears clouding his vision.

"Kiss me… Sonic…Just this once…" She managed, and pursed her lips. With a soft sob, Tails leaned in and touched his lips to hers. It was a weak kiss, as their noses touched, but he could taste her blood on the tip of his tongue. Her body began to go limp, and he leaned back, breaking the kiss to better look at her face. She was…

Smiling.

"oh…. Sonic…" she said, looking up at him with unabashed adoration. "I'm so… so happy…"

"Amy…" He felt her exhale, and then – nothing. " Amy!"

Shadow watched, still smirking triumphantly.

"Amy!" Miles gave her a gentle shake, and her head limply lolled back and forth against his arm. "AMY!!"

"Congratulations… Miles…" Shadow interrupted and started clapping. "That would be hate you feel... For me. For yourself. For the world! Why don't you show it to me? That hate you have?"

The fox gently laid Amy on the floor, and looked at his blood stained hands.

"Don't tell me you're having second thoughts, foxboy." Super Shadow stopped clapping, and took a step forward. "This isn't your first taste of this world's cruelty. And you have at least one more lesson to go."

Slowly rising to his feet, over Amy's lifeless body, Tails looked up at the Ultimate Life Form, the pupils of his dark blue eyes glowing a colorless white. Even with three long bangs partially obscuring his eyes, Shadow smiled at the radiated power he felt coming from the young kitsune. Miles hands were partially splayed near his knees, blood dripping from the tattered white gloves he wore. The tips of his claws had torn through the gloves and slowly dripped crimson.

"SHADOW!!" He roared, sharp canines bared.

The once black hedgehog smirk only deepened. "Did I upset you, Miles?"

The kitsune claws flexed and his hands clenched tightly. "For everything you've done… for this especially… There can be no forgiveness. I'm going to show you the Hell you deserve."

"Don't you know?" Shadow sneered. "We're already in Hell, you and I! This world is our Hell!"

Shadow motioned the fox to attack with his right hand. A gust of Chaos powered wind blew out from around him, causing Amy's body to slide against the floor and up against a wall. Miles, however, was unmoved. In front of him, a Chaos Shield glowed faintly, easily resisting the attack. This only caused Shadow to laugh excitedly. The transformation itself has been subtle, slight, almost unnoticeable. The boy was Super too!

"Come on! Come on, boy!" Shadow's whole body tensed in anticipation. "Kill me if you can!"

"Shadow, you told me to watch helplessly, as you took away what I cared for," the kitsune stated, walking forward. Shadow waited for the next attack but it never came.

Miles walked right past him.

"What are you doing?" Shadow jeered. "Where do you think you're going, you little bastard?"

He just kept walking.

"Are you a coward? Are you afraid of me?" Shadow asked, and snorted in derision. "Or maybe you just don't hate enough yet. Maybe I should kill that bitch spy of yours next?"

Nothing.

"Should I tell you how she screamed like a stuck pig when I had her tortured?"

Tails stopped, just long enough to glance over his shoulder.

"Make no mistake," he said, midnight blue eyes dark with rage. "I do hate you. But..." He turned his back on the ultimate life form. "I won't play this game any more."

"What are you -- ?" Shadow hissed.

"Stand there and watch, helplessly, as I take away the only meaning your life has!" Miles broke into a run and reached for the jagged tear in Iblis' prison. "Your revenge!"

"What are you doing?" Shadow realized it, too late. "No! That's Maria's Dream! Don't touch it!!"

Shadow ran, forgetting his techniques, forgetting his power, forgetting the finer points of combat. If this brat was in his own Super form now, and all Shadow's senses indicated he was, then he couldn't be allowed to interfere in Iblis' resurrection. With Amy dead, Iblis had no pure soul to restrain her, and with the other three gone, she was breaking through the crack in the prison at a rapid pace. Iblis would return… as Maria's avenging angel! It was her new dream! No one could be allowed to ruin it, not again!!

NOT AGAIN!!

He grabbed the fox's arm and the two became engulfed by light.


	39. A Flawed and Imperfect World iv

The ARK floated lazily through space, cruising through its high orbit around the tranquil planet below. Lights from the orbital elevator glittered a faint red and white. Busy robots and construction ships flittered along the nascent orbital ring like worker bees. From such a high vantage point, the cloudy world below seemed to peaceful, so large… and so perfect, like a diamond in the sky. Sometimes, Shadow just stared down at it and wondered. A part of him understood that it was the most valuable thing there was.

He supposed that was probably why everyone fought over it so often.

Next to him, a young girl with blonde hair and a blue ribbon also watched the slowly spinning world. She was the real reason he was here. Metaphysical questions were not his natural preference; there were never any good answers to them. He wanted absolutes. He needed absolutes. Something that he didn't need to question or doubt. Maria, on the other hand, always seemed to be thinking… and wondering.

She was the one who brought out the wonder in him, as well. She was the one who talked to him and made him question why he was made and what he was doing. Maria never judged him. She simply accepted him. He couldn't count how many times he'd found comfort in her arms. He looked at her shyly, simply remembering when she'd hugged him and cheered him up without so much as a word.

Life – existence itself – was cruel.

Only in Maria was there kindness.

That was the world he knew: they tested him in the labs, poking and prodding and simulating. They tested him in the atelier, pitting him against Biolizards and Artificial Chaos and other prototype Shadows. They drilled him and trained him and forced open his eyes and showed him everything he had to hate and fight for. Then the blood stains and the tears would be washed away with water and soap and he'd return to his room and wait for tomorrow. But they couldn't wash away the confusion or the fear or the other feelings he wasn't supposed to have, but secretly did.

Maria.

Only Maria made it bearable to exist.

When he was little, before he had proven himself as the ultimate life form, he would find contentment buried in her chest, and the tears he couldn't explain would go away. She was always so gentle, so warm, and she smelled so different from the other humans and combat androids and artificial life forms. She smelt sweet and inviting, and it made the fear go away.

As he grew, she taught him the things Professor Gerald and the other humans wouldn't or didn't care to. She taught him about Mobius, about art, about life, about living. She gave him pencils and paper. She read to him and with him, not about the things the Masters wanted, but about fairy tales and make-believe worlds. These were 'meaningless things' to some, but he found them to be a wonder of their own.

_Why do I exist?_

_Why am I alive?_

_I've been built to harness all this power! Why? It is only to serve others? It is to help the humans learn to harness the power themselves? Is it to help cure Maria's disease? It is to help fight the Black Arms when they come to Mobius? Are these the reasons I have to survive? Is this what I look forward to with every passing day? _

_Is this what I want?!_

"Maria, why," he asked, not for the first time. "Why do you think we're here?"

Maria turned and smiled at him; her smile was the real reason he always asked that question. She always gave the same answer, and he never did truly understand it.

"To make the world a better place, Shadow," she replied.

And her smile made him smile, if only for a little while. Then they both went back to the planet below. After a few seconds of deep thought, Shadow's eyebrows turned upwards in a look of confusion. This time, he had a new question to share with her.

"Maria… the doctors say I'm designed to help people. To protect them. Even if I am a failure…"

"You're not a failure, Shadow." Maria quickly cut in.

"Thank you… Maria…" He felt her reach out, take his gloved hand in her own and give it a reassuring squeeze. Something in her eyes glistened, and he saw that she was about to cry. Why did she always cry when he talked about being a failure? It was like he had told her that he was dying or something.

"Maria…" he said the name softly, reverentially. "The Professor… he said that the power of science can make people happy some day. But… but how can weapons like me make people happy? Even if all the mobians were killed…"

He didn't miss the look on Maria's face as he said that.

"Even if that happens… will it make people happy, Maria?"

_Is that why I exist?_

_Is that what I want?_

Maria took a step closer to him, and shook her head sadly. "No, Shadow. It won't. I don't think killing anyone… has ever made anyone else happy."

"Maria, what makes people happy, then? What makes you happy?"

She smiled at him, sadness behind her eyes.

Then, one day, soon after all the fights and tests earned him the title he had suffered so much for, the title of _ultimate life form_, he began to feel something new. He didn't understand it and couldn't describe it, not then, so he worked harder and pushed himself to his limits. He was the **Ultimate**! He was **Shadow the Hedgehog**! He would prove he deserved to exist!

But no matter what he did: no matter how high he scored in his tests, no matter how well the synchronizations and experiments went, no matter decisively he defeated the other weapons and enemies he faced… the feeling never went away. It never went away! Even when Maria hugged him and talked to him and held his hand **it never went away!**

"What is it I want? I don't understand! What does this feeling mean?" In the shadows of his room, he clutched his stomach, fighting it. But unlike every other enemy, he couldn't win.

Thinking about Maria only made it worse.

"That can't be what I want is it?" He held his head in his hands, tears streaming down his cheeks. "That can't be what I want!!"

I want ---

Her soft hair.

I want –

Her sweet voice.

I want –

He warm embrace.

I want –

Her soft chest.

I want –

In the darkness of his room, he screamed.

_I want something from her and I don't know what!!_

_Oh God!_

**_I THINK I WANT TO KILL HER_**

.

Hot tears ran from his eyes as he remembered. There was fire everywhere, white and hot and unyielding, like a molten pool great enough to heat Hell itself. His grip on someone's arm tightened, but not in anger. Why was he here? Why was he remembering this? The fear came back. The guilt. The sickness. He had tried to fight it! He had tried to! Didn't that absolve him!?

Gerald's voice boomed, like that of God himself.

"Shadow. What did you do?"

"We were… just playing! I didn't mean to hurt her! It was an accident! I'm so sorry! I – I would never hurt her! You created me to help her! She's alright, isn't she? She'll get better, won't she?"

He nodded, once.

"Yes." Gerald looked away. Far away. "She told me… she forgives you."

.

"Maria…" Shadow took a deep breath, as if to calm himself. "Maria was too good for this world. This world that repaid her kindness with cruelty. This world whose response to a gentle touch was… No… No. I can not forgive this world! And no one can redeem it! No one can return its lost innocence. It is too late to turn back, too late to question…"

_"Make the world a better place, Shadow."_

"Even Maria… even she… would not understand this cause I have in her name…"

He turned to face the glow of Chaos that was building up within the Eclipse Chamber. There was a darkness deep within it: a terrifying abyss of ageless hatred and madness. Six burning eyes cut through the white fire. Indistinct but terrible, living lakes of fire reached for the heavens. It was almost free.

.

~ _This world does not deserve to be saved_ ~

Pushing through the energy was like moving through molasses. Around Miles, all existence seemed to be just smoke and mirrors. Through the thick mist flashed the occasional color, and in the distance an intricate web of lines stretched up and around for what seemed like infinity. Still, without even thinking, Miles moved forward in the only direction he could. It was like walking down a narrow invisible path, but his body… his body felt light. Weightless. Unhindered by injuries or fatigue.

_~ This world is a flawed mistake ~_

Moving through the mist, pictures assailed him. Scenes of murder and torture and rape – scenes of all the world's diverse and degenerate crimes. He saw, on a mirror floating nearby, a family of mobians herded into a roboticizer. He saw, in another, the systematic execution of those too young to be efficiently roboticized, the bodies left to rot in the hot noon sun. He saw scenes from wars new and old, from the worst that the world had to offer.

_~ It is a living Hell ~_

Pushing forward, he saw a shape ahead of him. Floating in place, Shadow was in his normal body – black with dark red highlights. Lights twisted and turned around him, and he looked up as the younger mobian approached. His eyes had lost their glow, and now seemed to have a hazy and glazed look to them.

_~ Oh God! I think I want to kill her ~_

"Miles… Prower…" he said, slowly. "You've come to stop me? To defend this world?"

"Shadow…" The kitsune drifted closer, but it became more and more difficult as he approached the other mobian.

"You cannot approach me…" Shadow warned. "I know what you're thinking. I saw what you saw, so you must know. You must know…"

"I know."

The world shifted, and the two were side by side again: Shadow still had him by the arm. Boosted by the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds and his own Super Form, Super Shadow's Chaos Requiem tore into the two tailed fox, stripping away molecules and cells, layer by layer. Miles could feel it working, saw how it worked, knew why it worked. Shadow winced as he, too, became caught in the distortion. Skin and fur began to disassociate, forming a fine dust.

It had been clear from the moment they met here, that only one would survive.

"This is the only happiness, the only justice, I can give her! Even if she wouldn't have wanted it, even if she wouldn't have understood, I - I…" Shadow gritted his teeth, his left eye coming apart at the molecular level.

"I want it!" he screamed. "That's right! This is what I want! More than anything, I want this world to die!"

"I can see that." Miles closed his eyes, wisps of ash rising up from his cheeks.

Shadow cringed as yellow crackles of energy appeared around his body, running up his arms and down his torso. Then he, too, closed his eyes. Chaos Energy coursed through their blood, through their minds, through their souls, seeking to consume the weaker of the two.

"How can you of all mobians defend this world? What is it that brings you here? Was it duty? Was it Rouge? Is it your friends or your adopted family?" Miles heard Shadow ask. "Don't you see that it is all useless? Don't you see that it's all a lie? How can you not see my cause for what it is?"

"I see your cause for what it is, Shadow," Miles responded with vehemence. "I simply reject it!"

"How can you? I know you have suffered…"

His mother.

His father.

He saw himself, standing amid the bodies. He remembered crying for his mother to wake up, and for his father to help her. He had cried for days before he ran from the scene, mad with grief and panicked with loneliness. All around him, Miles heard her dying scream. All around him, he smelt the stench of death. And he knew he was responsible.

"What has this world given you that it will not take away?"

The kitsune's brows lowered into a frown. "I never said that this world was fair. Or kind. But…"

"What?" Shadow gasped, as he saw himself on the ARK, next to Maria.

"Shadow!" Miles' voice cut into the serenity of the moment.

Shadow saw himself in the escape pod and Maria by the controls. His face turned pale as the memory played out. She was supposed to leave him and save herself! That was why he existed! That was what he…

That was what he wanted.

"You selfish bastard!"

"This world is guilty!" Shadow yelled back. "See what they did to her? She's dead! My Maria is dead! Dead! What kind of world kills its angels and preserves its devils?! I never even got the chance to... to...!"

"You lived while she died, and you blame the world for it?" Miles appeared, near to where Maria lay against the control panel, near death. "There is only one person to blame for that, Shadow: Maria herself!"

"No!" The hedgehog snapped back.

"She saved you while you wanted to die. You wanted to prove yourself by dying to save her. Because you loved her! But she didn't want that, did she? She let a creature like you go… do you honestly think she did it to avenge her death? Not only wouldn't she understand you, not only isn't this what she wanted…"

Shadow bristled at the accusation. "She was too good for this world…"

"Shadow…" Miles spoke softly, and reached out to where Maria stood, next to him. Gently cupping her chin on his right hand, he lifted her face. The black hedgehog looked from the kitsune fox to the human girl. From her resting place, he could see her rise, great white wings lifting her into the air. Lower lips trembling, he took a step back when he saw her face. Her cheeks were stained by tears.

Tears shed for all those he had killed.

"Look at what you're doing, Shadow. If you really want to say, 'this is what I want' then face what you're afraid to admit: **that the one who made her cry is you!**"

No: tears shed not just for those who he killed, but...

For him, as well.

"no…" Shadow held out his hand to ward away the truth, his eyes wide. "Maria… don't… don't…"

"You wanted to know why I'm fighting for this world, Shadow, as shitty as it is?" Miles continued. "All my life, I have been what others wanted me to be: their sidekick, their sibling, their weapon, their hope. I thought that being what others wanted would make me happy, but it never did. I don't blame anyone for this except myself."

"As selfish as this sounds… I'm not fighting you for the sake of the world, or my friends, or anyone I thought I loved. I'm not fighting for Rouge or Amy or Knothole. I'm fighting to find out what really makes me happy. I'm fighting for a fresh start, even if it is in a flawed and imperfect world."

Tails smiled.

"Even if it is in a living Hell. Even if it's only a dream I'm destined never to reach… I believe you can find purpose and happiness for just a little while, and that makes it worth trying!"

Shadow felt a tug from deep within his body. It felt warm and soothing; not painful at all. Holding up his hands, he could see them smoking, as layer after layer of his body disintegrated. The crackling Chaos energy was consuming him, and breaking him into his component atoms. This was the Chaos Control. This was Entropy. This was the end.

It had chosen its victim.

"Judged… and found guilty? But I – I…" Shadow watched, resignedly, as his body drifted apart bit by bit. Then, a small hand took his own. Looking up, he stared into her eyes.

"Maria!"

Pulling him closer, he let her embrace him and wrap her arms around him.

"Oh Maria… you'll forgive me won't you? Just like before? I never meant to hurt you or make you cry, I…'

He took one last breath.

'I never got to tell you, Maria. I never told you that I think I loved you…'

Slowly, he smiled.

'I loved you so much… look down on me, Maria… from heaven…'

And then the last bonds of life that held him together vanished, and Shadow the Hedgehog fell apart into a dark black cloud of smoke. Miles Prower saw the look of peace and acceptance his enemy had borne, in the end, but felt no solace in it. Alone, amid the whirling energies of the blighted Eclipse Chamber, he knew nothing would ever bring back the dead. What was left of Shadow's body quickly dispersed, and became caught up in the currents of the spinning Emeralds that guided the flow of Chaos Energy. In only a few seconds, he was gone, and the smoke and light went with him.

He looked down and saw the damage to his body: patches of skin and muscle were gone, the molecules teleported piecemeal into the ether. He analyzed the situation, and estimated the time left before Helios impacted. He knew he had taken too long. Far too long. Perhaps he had a minute left before the city crashed. His mind also stated the obvious: he could escape and repair himself. It was possible, but it would mean leaving Helios to crash.

That was unacceptable.

"I see," he said, resigning himself. "I suppose I only have one last thing to do then."

Miles knew what had to be done. Opening his mouth, calming his breathing and his mind, he felt the Chaos absorb him and be absorbed in turn. Slowly, he began to turn, spinning along an axis that went down his body. He could feel and hear Iblis in the background, like white noise, straining to get free. The power of Chaos was everywhere, building to a point far exceeding the ability of the Chamber's Chaos Siphons itself to channel or control it.

"Sorry, Sonic, I don't think I'll be able to make that race around the world with you. I won't be coming back and I - I let Amy die… I let Rouge get hurt. I didn't make much of a hero after all... but I can finish what I started!"

He looked upwards and smiled contentedly.

"I won't let all this be for nothing."

* * *

Sally watched from the bridge of the Nor'easter as the main screen displayed Helios' descent. The Falling City had reached a speed of almost one and a half kilometers per second and was only moments from impact. Above the great yellow circle and dotted projection line superimposed on the map, a countdown ticked away in bold numbers. Hundreds of nearby dots on the screen represented ships and fighters and transports. Everything had been mobilized to try and get civilians out of Knothole before impact.

Aya sat in the center of the deathly quiet Flag Bridge, waiting.

A hushed silence hung over the room.

"Captain!" an officer manning sensor control suddenly spoke, shock and awe coloring his voice. "Detecting Dimitri-Edmund Emissions! Massive spike! Field distortions increasing exponentially!"

"Scopes on target!" Aya ordered and the main screen switched to the tumbling, burning, writhing black mass that was Helios. The Nor'easter was miles away from the impact point, but the view it had was both awe inspiring and terrible to behold. Without warning, the three kilometer wide blip superimposed on the topographic map vanished.

A heartbeat later and the Falling City followed suit.

* * *

Tempest had faced the falling city with a smile.

Standing atop a small hill of crushed combots and eviscerated badniks, he had buried his polearm into the highest point in the artificial hill and taken a seat to enjoy the show. This close, Helios blotted out both sky and sun, eclipsing all of creation. It was close enough to almost see through the poisonous black shroud surrounding it.

Nail stood nearby, looking up.

Taking a quick swig from a flask, Tempest passed the drink to the echidna. The student of Athair stared at the little metal flask for a moment, making up his mind before grabbing it and taking a quick drink. Almost immediately he stared to cough, the moonshine burning a trail down his throat.

"Brat's taking his time," Tempest observed, and shielded his eyes. "Ah…! There we go."

* * *

A mile away from them, but still well within the annihilation zone of the crash, a cream and tan colored rabbit sat up on a medical cot. Her upper body was bandaged, and her face looked pale from lack of blood. Looking in the direction of the rumbling, she covered her mouth with her hand.

* * *

Further away, Rouge and Wave helped Sonic to his feet, the latter trying to move the hedgehog without ripping the bandage they'd hastily fixed around the bloody wound Mephiles had left in his side. Sonic was literally surviving only on ring energy. They had ended up almost sixty miles away, near one of the landing zones for evacuees. The air was thick with transports, some even bearing the insignia of GUN, unloading civilians from the far off warzone of Knothole.

Neither female said anything; Rouge still couldn't hear, anyway.

Beyond the trees and the horizon, something flashed. Rouge looked up at the pale blue sky. It was a perfect and cloudless near-twilight. This far from the lights of a city, the moon and the stars could just barely be seen.

'Miles…'

* * *

Knuckles watched from a distance atop a particularly tall spruce tree. He could feel it coming before it actually came. A great pulse washed over the land, like a contraction, but in the Chaos Force. The echidna Guardian's spines rustled in the nonexistent wind.

The Super Emerald in his hand glowed with an eerie inner light.

* * *

In her padded cell, Fiona Fox laughed.

* * *

Silence.

Where the descending Perfect Defense Fortress Helios and the majority of the robot army had once been… there was only a perfectly formed crater four kilometers wide. Around it, much of the Great Forest still stood, but ended abruptly. It was almost as if the hand of some insane god had reached down and scooped out a chunk of the planet, removing it cleanly and entirely. It was as if an area of one hundred and thirteen square kilometers had vanished in thin air.

What few clouds hung in the sky rippled away.

And then, a great rushing wind swept in, drawing millions of tons of air and water and debris into the sudden vacuum. Fifteen thousand ton flying airships struggled to fight against the current. Smaller drone craft and a handful of the remaining Eggman Legion were swept up and pulled in entirely. Amazingly, any organics within range found themselves hundreds of meters from where they had once stood.

And then, just like that, it was over.

* * *

High Orbit

One hundred and thirteen square kilometers of air and rock and steel appeared in a flash of light. The cruel vacuum of space immediately claimed what it could. Air rushed out of unsecured areas: sucked down unsealed corridors and hallways and out hangars and battle damaged holes punched into the Flying City's hull. Robots drifted in zero gravity, their opponents no longer registering on their sensors. Thousands of tons of ruined super structure, smashed buildings, melted debris, and wrecked airships floated in place before drifting away.

Within the heart of it all, surrounded by a bubble of air, Miles clung onto life.

"Trajectory… calculated," he managed to say, even as more and more of his body disintegrated. He knew he was still technically in his Super form, and that its near invulnerability was all that kept him alive. But it wouldn't last forever, and when it failed, he would come apart just like Shadow had.

Looking down, he saw his lower body was gone, too, below the waist.

"Not yet. I'm not done yet…" He turned to face Iblis, who still raged against her constraints. The Ark was almost completely shattered now, and Iblis had managed to squeeze an entire arm (or similar horrific appendage) through the gap. She was struggling furiously to get free and finish prying open the dimensional tear.

Miles reached out for her with his power.

It was a terrible to behold.

Blinding in intensity, cutting through every barrier that dared to stand against it. He had no idea how to contain it. He had put the remains of Helios into a slingshot orbit that would lead it into a rendezvous with Mobius' primary moon. It was the best he could manage on such short notice, and with so many other things to Chaos Control to so many other locations. Almost a thousand men and women needed to be teleported out of the city before he even began moving it.

He was also reluctant to send the Chaos Emeralds into the sun or deep space.

The Moon would have to do. The impact would be enough to completely vaporize most of Helios itself, and if the Emeralds didn't transition back to the Special Zone, then someone – eventually – could retrieve them. It would have to do. Now: the only thing left was this _thing_ Shadow had planned to unleash.

Miles understood the cutting edge of dimensional physics. He knew how to build warp gates and star posts. He knew how to create pocket dimensions or access other zones. He'd even been to alternate realities. With his last iota of life and energy, he tried to study this new phenomenon: to understand it and plum its secrets. A thrill passed through him, even now, at encountering something new and fascinating to study.

But it was so… monstrous, so angry, so mad…

The last thing Miles saw, truly saw, was a halo of pure white, engulfing all the world. Then, there was nothingness, just an empty void. Everything felt numb… like his whole body only half existed. For a moment, he wondered if this was… death…

"Master," it was a girl's voice.

Who was she?

"Master," she repeated. "My name is Shahra. You have to use me."

Miles saw only an expanse of white, but then, within that featureless void, a girl began to appear. He had seen a great many humans over his life type, of all shapes and shades and sizes, but this girl was unique. Her hair was a vibrant violet color he had never seen in a non-mobian, and her ears were even slightly pointed. A lock of her hair even curled straight upwards before falling back down.

No: she wasn't human.

She was _something else_. Another scientific curiosity, he immediately decided. The girl's attire was also foreign and strange. She had gold bracers around her arms and wrists, an intricate wrap around her torso the color of lightest blue, and a transparent sarong of some sort around her white pants. It was not a style of dress that the kitsune had encountered before, further adding to the mystery.

_"To seal Iblis and to repair the damage done,"_ another voice interrupted, booming in the void. _"Use this one. She is the Burning Key."_

That voice…

That nightmare voice…!

"I know you!" Miles called, and his voice echoed in the immeasurable nothingness. "Who are you? What is this?"

_"Who are you?"_ the voice asked. _"What is this?"_

"Don't parrot me!" Miles snarled. "There's no time for this!"

_"Who are you?"_ the voice asked again. _"And what is this? You haven't figured either out yet, have you? I'll give you a hint."_

Miles winced as something seeped out of his body… a red mist… before it began to coalesce in front of him. Eerily, the gas began to twist and churn into a face, but the features were constantly in flux; always changing.

_"Who are you?"_ It repeated, mouth moving but speaking not in words, but in thoughts.

_You think you know, but you have only the faintest inkling of the truth. Let me tell you who I am, so you may understand who you are._

The blood mist twisted and grew into a shadow of light and dark, formless and faceless. Two white orbs shone in the place of eyes.

_I am the First and you are the Latest, perhaps even the Last. From me come the Chaos Emeralds you and your kind so desire... I have been Chosen to bear the weight of Chaos._

Miles narrowed his eyes at the apparition.

"The Chaos Force?" he speculated, and quickly looked around. "No. No! You're the anomaly…! The 'Universal Reserve' predicted by the Finitevus Theorems!"

The ghost floated, silent.

"Wait. Either you are, or…" The kitsune's eyes widened at it hit him, like a blow from Shadow himself. The echidna, Finitevus, had masterfully calculated the rates of accumulation of ambient Chaos Energy over time, and proven that it was a non-constant. He had also gone on to produce mathematical proofs supporting the existence of a so called 'Universal Reserve' of Chaos Energy to account for the waste in Chaos Energy conversions.

Tails had reviewed the math himself and agreed with the general conclusion.

Miles knew he wasn't normal, and neither were Sonic or Knuckles or Shadow. Unlike other chaos sensitive mobians who could absorb limited amounts of chaos energy, their bodies could absorb seemingly unlimited amounts. However, doing so was horrendously inefficient. More than ninety percent of Chaos Energy that what was absorbed wasn't used. It just seemed to disappear.

If Finitevus was right (and the theorem was mathematically sound) then the waste energy was shunted into a Reserve somewhere, probably within the space time of the Chaos Force itself. How much waste energy would accumulate there over the centuries, then, after millions of rings and dozens of Super transformations? Miles own speculation had always been that the energy built up could not be constant. Sooner or later, it would reach critical mass and…

_You, Miles_.

He was the Reserve.

"You can't mean… I'm…" Miles shook his head, trying to reason a way out of it. "Was this what Athair meant when he said I was the Chosen One? That I'm just some… accumulation of energy? That I'm just some variable in an equation governing energy conversion?"

_This is what it means to be Chosen._

"Then, if I'm…" Miles looked past the shadow and saw the six burning eyes of Iblis, barely held in check. "Then this is one, too. This _thing_ is like me! And like you!"

"Long ago," Shahra spoke up, her head still bowed in subservience. "Iblis was my sister. She, too, was Chosen."

Miles shook his head, unwilling to accept it: that this thing, this monster, this bottomless well of madness and hate… it was the same. They were the same!

Shahra continued, regardless, "She couldn't deal with what she learned. When she began to change, she… she began to forget who she was. The Master came to us and gave us a means of saving our people. The Master sealed her away. I was also Chosen to be my sister's Key."

"You were…?" Tails shoulders slumped. "This isn't what I wanted…"

_"Of course not,"_ the formless apparition stated, _"Yet it is, what is. None of us wanted this. We were merely Chosen."_

Iblis roared, breaking through the last of her seals. Red and black fire crept over the white featureless void, tearing and burning and raging out of control. Shahra looked up with wide, frightened violet eyes. She held up her small hands, pleadingly.

"Use me, Master!" she implored. "Use me!"

Miles reared back, hesitant.

_"Use her,"_ the apparition demanded. _"Repair the Prison!"_

Iblis roared again, straining madly to be free.

_"Do it!"_ the formless smoke ordered.

"Please!" Shahra cried. "This is… why I exist… Use me!"

_"Use her!"_

"Use me!"

Iblis' gaze fell on him, and for an instant, Miles saw her as she used to be. Like Shahra, she had been vaguely human, with soft blue hair and eyes. He saw her reaching for him from behind her bars. He saw the pain, the neglect, the fear and the despair that had consumed her. Just the merest trace of it moved him to tears.

_"What do you want, __Chosen__ One?"_ the formless ghost thundered. _"This is the nature of your existence!"_

Iblis' human features peeled away, revealing six glowing embers of burning hate. Her scream became an inhuman howl, and her hair became wreaths of black flame. The soul of Mephiles squirmed and burned within her pitch black maw.

Miles took Shahra's hands.

"My choice…"

He felt the numbness subside. Blinking, Tails saw the emptiness fill to brimming with life – a line of mobians, faces, bodies, a veritable crowd… lined up in front of him. Everyone he could remember, some long dead… everyone he had ever cared for, everyone he had ever hated. Friends. Enemies. They all stood, waiting, watching. The apparition appeared at the forefront of the throng, rising out of the ground like a ghost.

_"You accept this, don't you?"_ it asked. _"After this, you can never go back to what you were before. What do you want, and what are you willing to give up?"_

Tails looked into the crowd as they filed by, one by one.

_What do you want?_

Rouge sauntered up to him. Pressing her soft curves against his body, she whispered into his ear. "Do you want pleasure, Miles?"

Cream then stood before him, holding out her left hand. On it, a gold wedding band twinkled with tiny inlaid gemstones. "Or would you rather be loved, my dear Tails?"

Sonic smirked, tapping his foot impatiently. "How about respect, Tails? Would ya like that?"

"How about adulation?" Amy looked at him dreamily, hearts in her eyes.

Tempest seemed occupied cleaning a small knife, but he looked up at his student with a knowing smile. "Does the simple ascetic lifestyle of the kitsune appeal to you?"

Eggman crossed his arm and chuckled. "Why settle for what life gives you, when you can make the world into what you want?"

"You have the power, now!" Shadow raised a gloved fist, wet with blood. "You can do as you please. I know the secret thrill you get, seeing fear in the eyes of those weaker than yourself…"

Bunnie held out her hands, a serene look on her face. "Yah want to be accepted, even though yah'are different. Deep down, ah know yah just want to be normal…"

"Do you want knowledge?" Rotor proposed.

"Or understanding?" Nail countered.

"A sacred duty?" Knuckles asked, and leaned against Angel Island's Master Emerald. "And a sense of continuity?"

"To Hell with that!" Fiona cracked her knuckles, smirking viciously. "How about just going and doing whatever ya feel like!"

Mina posed from behind a microphone. "Isn't it enough to just make people happy?"

"Don't forget!" Sally stood with her hands on her hips. "You have a responsibility to protect those who can't protect themselves!"

Nicole's holographic form shimmered. "Flesh is weak, after all. Existence is just another word for sensory data."

**"What do you want?"** They asked as one, a great chorus of voices. **"Is this what you want?"**

They vanished behind him.

_Is this what you're willing to give up?_

He still held Shahra's trembling hands. Iblis filled the sky.

It was upon them.

"Shahra," he said, holding her hands in one of his own. "I don't know what will happen to you. Is this what **you** really want?"

The imprisoned genie, the so called Burning Key, looked up at the coming fire.

"Yes," she dared to say.

Miles squeezed her small hands, and she vanished in a puff of light. Her soul – the most basic and intrinsic chaos energy within what had once been her body – ripped free of the tiny golden ring that had been left behind. She had hidden with Sonic, knowing she would end up here, knowing that this would happen. She had _chosen_.

Tails balled his right hand into a fist, and felt Shahra within it.

"So be it," he decided. "I've made my choice, too."


	40. A Flawed and Imperfect World v

Nicole-Knothole replayed the footage a second time.

The image displayed a massive crater on the edge of the _mare speculum_ (sea of mirrors), the largest dark band running across the northern hemisphere of Mobius' primary moon. A closer inspection revealed a large degree of blasted rubble and a spreading plume of slowly falling ejecta.

Helios had finally landed.

"These images were taken two hours ago," Nicole stated, her holographic projection lowering her eyes respectfully. "They were verified by echidna observatories thirty minutes ago. The Helios platform is effectively no more."

Around the table, the city and royal representatives muttered among themselves. Only a few remained silent: Sonic said nothing, and General Stryker (present as a guest) seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. Rotor was requesting that the Kingdom organize a retrieval or surveying mission, if only an automated probe, to investigate the wreckage and the new crater. The King, for once present in person, also remained silent and listened.

"What good is a space mission!?" Hamlin, who had managed to retain his position as speaker for the Knothole city nobles, slammed his fist on the table. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but half the city is in ruins! They're still fighting robot holdouts to the south!"

"I haven't forgotten," Rotor replied, less than pleased to have to argue with the spineless head of the city's nobility. "But there's valuable data up there, not to mention the Chaos Emeralds themselves! Plus, if there's anything left…"

Sonic frowned, arms tightly crossed.

Rotor changed his approach. "Intel believes GUN has an automated salvage mission in the works. They'll claim the whole crater at this rate."

"Let them!" Hamlin argued. "If they retrieve the Emeralds, then that just means they're doing our work for us!"

"Of all the short sighted -- "

"If you have the time to spend on dreaming up space missions we can't afford, then maybe you have the time to do something about all those hostile airships floating over our heads?"

"Miles' former fleet is not hostile," Nicole corrected him, but didn't otherwise get involved in any ongoing debate. "They are programmed to only return fire in self defense."

"Well, what do we do about that?" Another noble, sitting next to the King asked. "We can't just leave them there. They're a menace! People are frightened enough as it is."

Miles' pirated fleet of ships had, after the battle, gone into standby mode. This meant that most of them were lined up in parade formation south of the city, near the new Prower Crater (which was expected to eventually become Prower Lake). Most were badly damaged, and one had already fallen out of the air and crashed to the ground. Thankfully no one had been nearby. The other ships simply remained in place, returning fire at anyone who attacked them or tried to board them, but otherwise just floating there.

"Their reactor power is limited and many are damaged," Nicole clinically observed. "The last one should fall on its own around the middle of next month."

"So for a month we're going to have giant airships falling out of the sky?" Hamlin raged. "This is un-accept-able!"

King Max put an end to the argument.

"Enough. What is it you propose, Minister?" he asked, referring to Rotor.

"A joint mission with Echidnapolis."

A collective groan passed through many of those assembled. The echidna were even less popular than the humans. At least the humans had contributed to the end of the war (in fact, those who were honest about it admitted that they had carried much of the fighting, especially in the air) – the echidna, however, had sat things out entirely. No official aid had been forthcoming from Angel Island, either military or economic. The echidna had chosen to remain "above" the fighting on the mainland.

"I know," Rotor added, sympathizing with the feelings of many. "But they have the technology and the experience. They used to send Cosmonauts into low orbit and they've launched a few deep space probes. We don't have that, but we have some of the facilities, and the Lunar Fox. It's the only way we'll get something there within the year."

All eyes turned to the King for his opinion.

"It has some merits," Maximilian admitted. "We would like a show of our technological prowess. It would not do for other powers to believe themselves superior to us. This may also help to mend the rift between our peoples. I approve of it."

Rotor bowed his head. "Thank you, your Majesty."

"Now, on to important business," Max decreed. "What of our military situation, Menthe?"

The Minister of War stood and bowed.

"My Lord, the Ministry has finished tallying our losses, and we are pleased to report that with a local _levée en masse_ we should be able to return our Eastern Divisions to full strength within three months. In the interim, if I may, I would suggest we divert some of our assets from the western provinces to help secure The Ring and the site of the former capitol."

"Can we afford that? I have heard some troubling reports from the west," another Minister interjected. "Brigands and peasant militias. Mercian mischief."

Minister Menthe nodded. "Yes. That is true. Many of the peasants in the west have refused to disarm with the end of the war. Many Freedom Fighter groups have also gone to seed and no longer respond to our orders. Mercia is known to harbor and abet at least some of these groups, though it is arguable how much actual control the Duchy has over its borders anymore."

Max tapped his fingers together in thought.

"Sarah," he said, referring to Princess Sally by her formal courtly name. "You were among the humans for a time. Particularly their Fleet Mistress. How vital is it to secure our eastern border with them?"

Sally, put on the spot, nonetheless organized a quick response.

"From what I could gather, many of the elements in their military are primarily concerned with the defense of their territory. I would not expect any major military incursions, especially since the recent battle mauled their fleet more than our own," she then added. "I would be watchful of attempts to destabilize the border or arm rebel groups. GUN has a very capable covert operations branch and they have never hesitated to use it."

"You suggest?"

"Trained Freedom Fighters are best suited to this sort of confrontation," she suggested, trying to sound like she wasn't aggrandizing herself or making a bid for power against the Army. "We can blend in with the population and keep a discrete eye on any unusual goings-on."

King Max slowly nodded; Sally's reasoning was impeccable.

"Very well, you shall have our dispensation to act accordingly," he magnanimously decided. "Do us proud."

Sally bowed her head in silence.

"Your Majesty, on that topic," the Minister of Foreign Affairs took the opportunity to speak up. "We have received a guest from one of the, ah, inorganic Underbosses."

"The Dominion?" Sally asked, anger in her tone of voice.

There were only two surviving organic Underbosses now that the Eggman Empire had completely disintegrated. The Iron Dominion was one. Rouge, apparently, had managed to set herself up as the other. Her authority codes out west had never been rescinded, thus technically leaving her in command of a small army near Cat Country.

"We have expected this, and would receive our guest here before her presentation to the court," Maximilian decreed. He gestured towards those in attendance, notably the seated and disinterested kitsune, Tempest, who was himself a leader among his people.

Nicole nodded, and she deactivated part of the security screen around the room. A door to the side opened, and two of Geoffrey St. John's elite secret service stepped out before presenting the representative from the Dominion. A female lynx entered; she had hair much the same as Nicole's avatar, but golden eyes and fur, save for black tips at the ears. She wore a simple violet colored vest, with darker colored gloves and boots.

The Foreign Minister presented her with a flourish.

"She is known as the 'Bride of the Conquering Storm,' My Lord."

"Mighty King." The lynx bowed her head gracefully. "The Iron King and Queen have sent me to extend their gratitude and good will. We are free of the Eggman Empire, by your efforts and grace, and my Masters have charged me with presenting your Highness a few humble gifts as tokens of our appreciation."

"Gifts?" Sally sounded suspicious.

The Bride spared the younger girl an unpleasant glance for interrupting.

"Our land is renowned for its fine silks and craftsmanship. Also… the Dominion had access to the Eggnet for some time, and our Queen had the confidence of the man you called 'Snively.' We are willing to offer some of our knowledge as a gift and a gesture of good will."

"Pretty quick turn around, from working with Robotnik to working with us," Sally observed. "All in less than a week? Tell me, did the Iron Queen send a delegation to GUN, too, to get a feel for the new political climate? Or was it Echidnapolis?"

The Bride's stare could have burned glass.

"Sarah, do not be rude to our guest," Max chided his oft-times undiplomatic daughter. "After all, they come in good faith, and you will show respect."

Sally huffed dismissively, but bowed her head in obedience.

"Our new holdings share a border with the Dominion," General Styker noted, speaking up finally. "We all have a vested interest in the stability of Mercia as well."

"This is true," the Bride of the Conquering Storm agreed, inclining her head in a respectful bow. "As… regional powers… we would be recognized as such by the court here. Our King and Queen wish only for us live and trade in peace, as friends."

"You guys are a bunch of thugs as far as I'm concerned!" Sonic grumbled, annoyed at the situation. "You mind telling us what happened to the Dragon Kingdom Freedom Fighters?"

"What a strange question," The Bride of the Storm answered with a chuckle. "I don't believe we've ever had any of these 'Freedom Fighters' operating in our territory. Are you sure they ever existed in the first place?"

Sonic fumed at the response.

"You know damn well what -- "

"Enough!" Max boomed and even Sonic bit back his words. At least for a moment. The blue hedgehog remained seated, but glowered at the Iron Dominion representative.

"We have no conflict with the Kingdom of Acorn, or our new neighbors in the Hegemony. The Iron Dominion merely wishes to be left to its own affairs so that we may all prosper…" The foreign lynx smiled and added, "The humans and echidna have already agreed to respect and recognize our sovereignty over the Dragon Kingdom."

"We will review your request and make our decision before the Court. You will be notified, and invited, should the response be positive," King Max announced, waving his hand dismissingly.

The Bride of the Conquering Storm bowed respectfully and took her leave.

Nicole blinked. "Privacy screen restored."

"Father," Sally immediately spoke up. "You aren't thinking of actually going along with this, are you? The Iron Dominion was an Eggman ally up until the last day and last hour of the war!"

"The merchants in Casino Night and elsewhere have been hoping to gain access to the market in the west," the Minister of Foreign Affairs reminded her. "The Iron Queen is also an overlander. We believe the GUN Remnant is courting her as an ally in the west."

"They are mayflies," Maximilian stated, as if it was the Source's truth itself. "But we will show them our munificence. The western borders are troublesome enough as they are without alienating the Dominion."

"The war's over for two days and we're already compromising our principles?" Sally asked, and gave up in disgust. "This isn't right."

"My dear, you have much to learn," her father replied. "See to your duty. You have much to learn in the realm of politics."

Sally brooded for much of the rest of the meeting, still disgusted by the announcement that the Kingdom – her Kingdom – would recognize and accept the Iron Dominion on their western border. There had been Freedom Fighters out there, unaffiliated perhaps, but they were comrades in spirit. Then there was Monkey Khan, too, who she knew would never accept the Iron Dominion's military regime. What would happen to him? What _had_ happened to him?

"Ah, yes, the rebuilding, yes," Hamlin was speaking again, on behalf of the city of Knothole and the nobles who technically administered to it. "As most of the damage was confined to the southern sections of the city, we have had some difficulty raising funds for reconstruction. We are currently reviewing a proposal to purchase much of the land, as the local populace there is unable to afford the costs of resettlement."

Sally could see through the language to what was actually being proposed: all the people who had lost their homes and who were unable to pay to rebuild them would have to sell their land as a reduced cost. Almost certainly the buyers were a consortium of nobles. She frowned – not in her city they wouldn't!

"Father, may I suggest an alternative?" she quickly asked, not letting anyone interrupt. "Much of that land is sure to have historical significance in the years to come and will appreciate in value. There is also something to be said for maintaining the character of Knothole as a cosmopolitan city with a strong middle class. The Crown could purchase the land and then lease it out to local investors and businesses. We could turn a tidy profit in just a few years."

King Max thought it over. The idea of easy money ending up in the hands of the crown instead of lining the pockets of greedy nobles had appeal. Sally was also right about the special character of Knothole. While he did nothing about it, the King was aware of the… situation in some cities, like Chemical Plant.

"We will explore the possibility," Max announced, and there was no further debate. "Until then, the lands will remain in the hands of their current owners. We may wish to administer them ourselves."

Hamlin fumed, but sat down.

Sally resisted the urge to chuckle. It would easy enough to make sure those areas were redeveloped responsibility. In the end, her father wouldn't make as much money as he was likely to expect, but by then it would be a trifling matter.

"Lastly," another noble spoke. "There is the matter of the state funeral."

"Yes, that." King Max tapped his index finger against his knee as he thought about it. "Make it something grand. Something befitting the moment. We have won the war, after all, and we regret that Our Servant gave his life. Balloons perhaps? Or fireworks? The people love fireworks."

"We were planning to have the celebration next week? Would the royal family be in attendance?"

"Oh yes. It is Our Victory after all."

"As you say, My Lord. We have plans for -- "

"You guys are talking like you know he's dead," Sonic interrupted. "But you don't."

"Sonic," Sally began.

"What?" Sonic noticed the looks he was getting. "Oh, what? You think I don't know what I'm talking about?" he pointed at himself. "The last ten years of my live have been one insane stunt after another! You think just because my little bro crashed some **city** into the **moon** that he's dead?"

Sonic snorted in lieu of laughter.

"Seriously," he said. "Couple years ago, we all thought Robotnik was dead when Snively killed him, but he came back. Knuckles was dead – actually dead, corpse and all – and he came back because of some Chaos Force crazy Guardian thing. I mean, he was green, but he was alive, you know? And then, this one time, Mogul pulled this stunt where he…"

Sally rested a hand on his shoulder, asking without asking for him to stop.

"There was a clone and…" Sonic trailed off. "Tails was a clone and the real one was somewhere else. You don't know he's dead. You don't _know_ it. Our lives – our lives ain't exactly normal..."

Sonic could see he wasn't getting through to them. Even Sally and Rotor, who should have known better, didn't really see what he was saying. He thought briefly about trying to convince them, but ultimately gave up. There was no point.

"You'll see," were his last words. "I've been doing this longer than anybody; I know what I'm talking about. You'll see."

* * *

**T minus Zero Hours**

Communications Silent

**Status:** … Presume Mission Failure

**Standing Orders:** Return to Gold Seven and Begin Contingency Plan Rho

"Mystic Ruins, huh?"

**Extrapolation:** Surveillance Mode Enabled

Nethack Terminus…

ACTIVE

* * *

Rouge opened her eyes, but knew she was dreaming.

The room was too quiet, too serene, too white and too ethereal to be anything but a dream. Light streamed in from the window, dappled from the outlines of the trees and branches outside. There were no medical charts or motivational posters on the walls either. That alone clinched it – this was definitely a dream.

"Cybernetics, huh?" a familiar voice asked, and she saw him sitting by the edge of her bed. Just like him, he was as interested in the technology as he was her. Still, he smiled, and Rouge found his smiles infectious on the rare occasion that they were honest and not just a way of deflecting attention.

"Top of the line," she replied, and playfully batted him on the arm. "Only the best for the evil Eggman Underboss: Rouge the Bat."

Miles nodded slowly, still smiling.

"So, what do you think?" she asked, pointing at her ears and the cybernetic replacement ear drums she'd had installed. "Can't even see them, can you?"

"Please, you call that top of the line?" he scoffed. "Yeah, you can't see them, but they don't shoot lasers or transform or anything! What's up with that?

"Not everything needs to transform, Miles."

He made a halfhearted grunt of acknowledgement.

"Rouge," he said, tone turning more serious. "I… I'm sorry you got hurt back there. I should've known better, given you something…"

She hit him in the arm again, this time for real.

"That ring you gave me saved my life, and don't you start acting like this wasn't my decision and my plan!" She scolded him. "We came up with it all together, so that means if I got hurt, I'm as much to blame as you are. Ok?"

He nodded, but didn't look convinced.

"How did the fight go, imaginary-boy?" she asked, knowing full well this was just a dream. It didn't hurt to ask though. "You kicked Shadow's ass before biting the bullet?"

"Biting the bullet?" he sighed. "Geez, what a rough woman… Couldn't you at least cry a little at the thought of my grizzly death?"

"Sorry," she said with a too-obvious exaggerated shrug. "You're in the wrong dream with the wrong girl."

"Oh, wait, what? This isn't Mina's dream?" he made as if to stand up. "Sorry, wrong room!"

"Sit your butt back down, mister!" she grabbed him by the arm and forced him back into his chair. He gave a weak struggle but sat back down.

"Mina, really? She asked.

"I'm sure I don't want to know," he leaned in a bit. "At least in Cream's dreams all we do is hold hands."

Rouge laughed, wiping away a tear.

"I knew I'd get you to cry over me sooner or later!" the two tailed fox leaned forward onto her hospital bed. "You did really great, Rouge. And, yeah, I kicked Shadow's ass for you, too."

Her smile and spirits dampened a bit.

"He was…" she stated to say, to try and describe.

"I know," he cut her off. "Believe me, I know."

Deciding this was her dream, and that she had no reason not to, Rouge lowered her hand and took his own. It felt good to hold his hand again, to feel some of the strength in there. Some of the purpose. It almost felt...

"This would be nicer if you were real," she said, squeezing his hand. "You still owe me big after all!"

He stared at her for a few seconds, as if wondering what to say.

"I'll pay you back," he finally replied.

"What, in dream money? Dream jewels? I can make those myself, thank-you-very-much."

"You are without a doubt the strangest female I've ever met."

"Wasn't your last girlfriend was a robot or something? And you call me strange?"

He huffed. "That's not exactly fair!"

He pulled his hand closer to her. "Get used to it! This is my dream, after all! Maybe I should show you how I beat up that precious princess Sally you love so much? Would you like that? We finally got to finish that fight from before."

"Oh yeah," he pretended to barely recall the incident in question. "That was just a catfight, from what I remember."

"It was not!"

"You were pulling each other's hair!"

"She has long hair! Is there some rule against pulling it?"

"Any amount of hair pulling and open palm action makes it a catfight. Those are the rules."

"What rules? Sonic's stupid rules?"

"Not all of them are stupid…"

He squeezed her hand back, and she leaned over to rest her head against his shoulder. He did almost feel real.

"They're stupid rules," she insisted. "I told you not to act like a hero, you know."

"Yeah," he whispered, the side of his cheek touching her ear.

It almost tickled.

"Sorry."

* * *

Lara-Su stood over Rouge's sleeping form, lowering a faintly glowing hand. Gossamer shadows played across softly humming machinery and drawn curtains. The echidna girl stared down at the chiropteran, mixed feelings running through her mind. Flexing her fingers, the green glow dissipated entirely.

"Sorry about this," she said, and vanished with a pop.

* * *

Blaze wasn't sure what to make of "Merlin."

On one hand, he was the man (or thing) that had basically created Iblis, the terror that had destroyed her world and her life. On the other hand, he was also the one who sealed Iblis before, and if he was to be believed, he played a part in sealing her again. Blaze had the humility to know when she had been made a fool of, and Mephiles had certainly done a masterful job of player both her and Silver.

Or maybe they had just been too gullible, too willing to believe, too willing to admit that they weren't strong enough on their own. Blaze was determined not to repeat that mistake. Holding her necklace, and the Sol Emerald within, she vowed to keep her own morality and never allow herself to be used again. Not like that. Not by Merlin, either, and not by the supposed Master of the Sol Emeralds that Lara refused to elaborate on.

Sitting in a strange room, _neither here nor there_ (if what she heard was to be believed), she and Silver drank tea and waited. It was an unusually cordial reception. Merlin entered the room, a friendly smile on his face. It had to be some kind of mask. It was just too weird for some kind of multi-thousand year old entity to just walk into a room, all smiles, like he was normal or something.

Lara followed close behind him, looking troubled.

"Hey!" Silver greeted her with a friendly wave. "How'd it go?"

The white hedgehog apparently found it much easier to adapt to strange circumstances. Either that or he had a damaged short term memory. Or – and Blaze wondered this with some suspicion – maybe he had a thing for their echidna rescuer. That would certainly explain why he was so eager to hang around. Blaze shook her head; that couldn't be it! He was just being a too-friendly too-trusting idiot as usual.

"Yet another weird job," Lara complained, sitting down on an intricate pillow chair. "Just one more in a long line of weird jobs I've done since I got this Emerald." She tapped the Emerald in her chest. "You're damn lucky I put up with all this!"

"What did you do anyway?" Silver asked, "Why was it so weird?"

Lara shuddered. "Do not want to talk about it."

"Well, you said you wanted to talk to us about something when you got back," Blaze stated, getting the conversation on track. "I assume this is about getting us back to the future?"

Lara sighed at the news she was about to share.

"Ok, um…" She tapped her cheek, thinking up how to put it. "You guys know about the Cosmic Interstate?"

The two shook their heads.

"Is that like the Highway to Hell?" Silver guessed.

"… Maybe. Actually probably not. Anyway," Lara started again. "The Cosmic Interstate it just this name for the area between alternate zones, but I guess I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Thing is: when you came back and changed the past, your future became an alternate zone compared to this one. It would be pretty much totally different compared to what you know. Or knew. You can't just go back to the future like that. Not after changing things."

"So what do we do?" Blaze asked. "Are you saying we can use this Cosmic Interstate thing?"

"Yeah, that's another problem," Lara said. "The Cosmic Interstate's pretty much closed off. Years ago… though I guess it wasn't that long ago since we're in the past… but anyway, the guys who policed the Interstate between the zones were these Zone Cops or something. I guess they drove around giving people tickets or something. They got wiped out."

She snapped her fingers.

"Along with most of the zones, too. Something involving this guy named Mammoth Mogul and merging his alternate selves together, and then Miles had to do the same thing and they… I don't pretend to understand it all. The point is: they tore the place up. After things were over, the versions of Miles that were dominant in the fight formed this group to decide what to do."

Silver and Blaze seemed to be still processing that.

Lara tried to cut to the point. "Basically, they closed off all inter-zone travel. That means no dimension hopping. No going to Pokemon Mobius for the weekend, no going to Moebius for illegal fireworks, and no going to Groovy Mobius for some 'prescription pills' if you get my drift. Of course, that also means we won't get a visit from, like, Nazi Mobius or Zombie Mobius or Pirate Mobius. Athough Ninja Village Mobius could be cool…"

Merlin coughed, preventing further speculation and confusion.

"You can not go home, either by traveling further in time or via dimensional travel," he explained.

"See?" Blaze pointed at the old vulpine. "That's how you explain something to someone."

"You guys are no fun!" Lara huffed, making a petulant face.

"Well," Silver spoke up, resting his hands in his lap. "Maybe… maybe that's not a bad thing…"

Blaze turned on him. "What do you mean? What about our home?"

He looked at her a little timidly. "Well, we wanted to save the future, right? Plus, I don't… I don't know. Maybe this is what we're supposed to do?"

"We vowed to save our future! Not… not theirs!" she pointed at Lara and Merlin. "No offense, but… you know."

Merlin merely raised an amused eyebrow.

"None taken." Lara shrugged.

"There has to be something we can do," Blaze argued. "Its kind of galling to admit, but both of you are more powerful than the two of us put together. Isn't there some way to get back to where we came from?"

Merlin's ever present smile faded a bit.

"The Interstate is closed. Even for me, there is only one way…" He waited a moment to make sure he had everyone's attention. "When the Titan closed off all dimensional travel, he split his power into amalgams of the Chaos Emeralds that are intrinsic to most zones. I believe these are called 'Infinite Emeralds' and they exist within only seven entities across the multiverse. Only these seven have the ability to access and regulate travel over what used to be the Interstate."

Lara nodded, picking up the explanation, "One of 'em is right here, which is why this is one of the Primary Zones. If your zone survived the transition from future to alternate, then it's possible he could send you home."

"But that would not be possible for years," Merlin continued. "There is much to do in the interim."

"So, we just have to wait and we can go home?" Blaze asked.

Lara scratched her head. "Ah, yeah, basically."

"What do we do in the mean time?" Silver didn't seem to like the idea of just waiting around.

"When you are ready, I can place you in a sleep that will suspend your bodies and minds. You will emerge when the time is right." Merlin smirked. "Or you can, as they say, just 'hang around' until then."

"If it's any consolation, I'm going to be doing the same thing. Apparently jumping me forward in time again is too much trouble…"

"A gross oversimplification."

"I'm going to be getting the sleep treatment, too," Lara finished. "Planned out so I wake up right when I got sucked back into the past."

"It is the safest and most prudent course of action. You won't even age," Merlin stated.

"Look," Lara concluded, pointing specifically at Blaze. "I've got the same kind of Emerald you do, and if there's one thing having it has taught me, it's this: sometimes you just gotta suck it up, accept that the situation's a mess, and make the best of the situation. Not everything is going to work out perfectly. But maybe it'll be pretty good, even if it isn't what you expected."

Blaze and Silver gave each other a quick look.

"We'll – we'll need to think it over," the feline said. "This is kind of a big decision."

Silver grunted. "That's an understatement."

Merlin's smile faded until it was almost non existent.

Lara quickly cut in. "You guys take all the time you need. Just keep in mind that if you don't take the Long Nap, then I'll have to keep an eye on you or something to make sure the timeline doesn't get all grandpa-complexy. That won't be fun for any of us."

Merlin and Lara-Su eventually left, leaving Silver and Blaze alone. Contrary to what Blaze had said before, neither of them spoke at all for a long time. What they both knew, but couldn't say, was that whatever they decided, they would both have to go along with it. After all they had been through, they would see to the rest together.

Finally, Silver gave a long groan of defeat.

"Not much of a decision, is it?" he asked.

"No. It isn't." Blaze spared him a wan smile. "But maybe it'll work out anyway. If this is what's supposed to happen... we vowed to save the future, right? Not to be there to enjoy it."

Silver glanced down at his hands. "I suppose. As long as we stick together, we'll be fine, right?"

She smiled at him and rested one of her hands on his.

"You can count on it!"

* * *

They turned Tails' funeral into a parade.

A god damned parade.

Not that Sonic thought he was dead. No: guys like him, like _them_, always had a good chance of coming back. If he doubted that, secretly, then that was just him being stupid. Sonic knew, death or not, that he'd see his best friend again someday. He just hoped they were both old enough to race by then.

Still, that didn't mean he had any intention of joining in on the "grand victory parade" in the city. There had been about five minutes of some priest talking about death and sacrifice, and then the balloons and floats came out, and planes roared over the city trailing colorful lines, and everyone went off to have fun. Normally, Sonic would have been more than happy to join in. He did love a good party. But this felt…

Wrong.

Or maybe just lame.

Yeah: it was lame.

Tails was dead (at least for a while). Amy was dead, too, and Sonic… felt pretty bad that he hadn't been able to save her. It wasn't like Amy wasn't a pain in the ass most of the time, always chasing him around and being a general nuisance, but she was still a fixture in his life. She was still someone he cared about. For the first time, he'd really, seriously, completely failed to protect someone. Instead, he'd rushed in, head first, and for the first time it had nearly gotten him killed.

Amy was dead. He hadn't even realized it at first. After coming to, he'd just assumed that Tails had saved her at some point. He'd even joked about it, saying that she would be jumping him around the next corner… or the next, or the next. Except she never did. She never would. She wasn't like him, or like Knuckles, or Tails. She didn't have the funky 'comic book effect' (as he liked to think of it) keeping her alive against the odds.

Just like that: she was gone.

Sonic wasn't sure how he felt about that. Not really.

Eggman was gone, too. The big, fat, stupid, idiot. Maybe Tails had done what he said he would and kill the guy. Maybe he'd just gotten blown up when Helios malfunctioned. He hadn't shown up again and while the fat man was about as tenacious as a cockroach, Sonic didn't think he would be showing up either. This – all this – had an air of real finality to it.

Stupid Eggman.

Stupid, stupid Eggman.

Sonic wasn't sure why, but he really did feel a hole in his life where that dead idiot used to be. None of the other villains around had his… what was a good word, he wondered? _Panache_. Maybe that was it. Eggman would always bounce back, always come back, always keep trying. He didn't know how to give up, and he didn't believe in excess. If he was going to launch something, like some new weapon, not only would he make it big, but it would be **huge**. And it would have his big, goofy face on it, with those stupid moustache whiskers sticking out.

Stupid, stupid Eggman!

Sitting down and thinking about it – actually, honestly thinking about it – Sonic could admit, if only to himself, that maybe he even liked old Ro-butt-nik a bit. Any other villain would have given up, and then where would that have left the hero? He was a great bad guy, and that made the guy who kept beating him a great hero. In a way, Sonic thought, they even had the same kind of spirit. Just left to their own devices, with no one else around, he and Eggman could have probably gone round and round till one of them died of old age.

Fireworks cracked high in the sky, spraying sparkles of red and blue and green in every direction. Others whizzed around, forming fancy spirals and other shapes. People cheered. It was over. It was all over. Perched atop a building, alone and away from the crowds and fans, Sonic sighed.

It **was** over, wasn't it?

Abruptly, he wondered where Knuckles was.

"Hedgehog," a less familiar voice came from the ledge below Sonic's dangling feet. He leaned over and saw Tempest resting against the wall, the black tips of his twin tails waving in the breeze. He seemed about as interested in the celebration as Sonic was.

"What's up, blood for brains? Can't find anyone to kill? Or maybe you're looking for some girlfriends to steal?" he asked, hoping the little jab would get the kitsune to lose a bit of control. Stoics were so boring.

Tempest made a 'hrumph' sound.

Sonic grinned. "Come on, what's up?"

"Take care of the Princess," he demanded. "I believe she'll need someone by her side in the years to come."

"I've been doing that long before you showed up, man."

Tempest didn't reply.

"That it?" Sonic asked. "Take care of your girlfriend! That's all you wanted to say?"

Tempest looked up at him. "That's it."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "What is it with you guys and Sally anyway? You're like the third guy to show up and put the moves on her."

"You find it unusual?" Tempest asked, and quickly added. "And I did not 'put moves on her.' The sea can no more love the wind."

"What does that even mean?" Sonic waves his hands. "On second thought, forget I asked. Anyway, I'll take care of Sal. Just like always."

Tempest grunted and made as if to leave.

Before he could, Sonic spoke up. "Hey…"

The kitsune glanced over his shoulder.

"Do you think he's dead?" the hedgehog asked. "Tails?"

"Hmm… maybe. Maybe he is dead." Tempest craned his neck to look out to the horizon, out where Prower Crater dominated the new landscape. "The boy you knew by that name."

"What…?" Sonic narrowed his eyes. "What does that mean?"

"Merely that some see death as a form of transformation," Tempest replied. "It depends on your point of view."

Sonic stared at him for a few seconds.

"I… don't get that kind of stuff," he admitted, deadpan.

And, for the first time that Sonic could remember, Tempest laughed.

"Hey!" the blue hedgehog crossed his arms in mock vexation. "Whatever. You're heading out?"

The kitsune warrior paused before nodding and turning once more to jump.

"My mandate here has been fulfilled, even under these circumstances. I will stay long enough to determine if any sort of treaty between our peoples is possible… something I strongly doubt… and then I will leave."

Then, without another word, he jumped off and vanished into the city.

And Sonic let him.

He remained there all day, until the sky turned dark and the moon sat high above the horizon. By then the parades and speeches had ended, and Knothole – scars and all – was enjoying its first night free of fear. Friends and families got together and celebrated in their own, less ostentatious ways. How many of them had lost those they cared for, or the things they worked for? How many still looked forward to tomorrow?

Sonic slowly stood, watching the stars slowly move in the clear night sky.

Up above, a new crater in the moon seemed to wink at him.

_Yeah_.

Sonic smirked.

_He'll be back._


End file.
